Research Brief: Forest Cover Buffers Microclimate and Increases Fuel Moisture in Northern Conifer Forests

Weather and fuels are among the critical, interacting factors that drive wildland fire behavior, and thus are primary factors in fire operations planning and decision support tools. In mesic forests, variation in stand structure may lead to heterogeneous microclimate and fuel moisture conditions in the understory where fires often ignite and spread. However, such variation in fuel availability is often overlooked by fire behavior models that assume spatially uniform weather and fuel conditions.

In this study, we analyze a combination of field-based understory meteorology and fuel moisture data with terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) and traditional forest inventory data to develop new knowledge about relationships between forest structure, microclimate, and dead fuel moisture in USA northern conifer forests that can inform fire operations planning and decision support.

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Breigenzer, P.J..; Fraver, S.; Gallagher, M.R..; Kenefic, L.S..; Lane, E.D..; Neely, J.M.; Wason, J.W. 2026. Forest cover buffers microclimate and increases fuel moisture in northern conifer forests: a terrestrial laser scanning approach. Fire Ecology. 22: 72. 14 p. https://doi.org/10.1186/s42408-026-00480-w