Date of Award
2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Publication Status
Version of Record
Submission Date
October 2026
Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]
Markwith, Scott H.
Abstract
Forest ecosystems are critically important to biodiversity and the global carbon budget. Within forest ecosystems, dead wood has several ecological roles, including in carbon and nutrient dynamics and biodiversity conservation. However, surface fuels in forests also influence wildfire behavior and associated risks and hazards. Therefore, appropriate management of dead wood contributes directly to appropriate functioning of the forest ecosystem by conserving forest biodiversity, mitigating extreme wildfire events and pyrogenic emissions, and enhancing carbon sequestration. Using data extracted from peer-reviewed journal articles, geospatial, and field inventory data, and integrating meta-analytic, hierarchical regression, and vegetation simulation modeling approaches, this dissertation project examined the influence of dead wood on biodiversity, carbon, and wildfires in forest ecosystems. The meta-analysis results suggest that dead wood quantity is an indicator of forest biodiversity, while dead wood types and decay stages had varied relationships with biodiversity. Generalized linear and additive mixed effects modeling of geospatial and human observed data demonstrated the predominant influences of weather conditions and moderate effects of live and dead fuels on exceptionally large wildfires’ behavior in the western United States. Consistently dominant effects of temperature on wildfire behavior highlight and emphasize the pressing need to address climate change's impact on western US forests. Lastly, vegetation and wildfire simulation modeling of forest stand inventory data and post-modeling carbon computations suggested that physical harvesting of dead wood, an approach analogous to traditional practice of firewood collection, when combined with modern mechanical fuel reduction treatments in Sierra Nevada, CA, mixed conifer forests has great potential to mitigate wildfire hazards, reduce fire emissions, and enhance carbon sequestration.
Extent
218 p.
Recommended Citation
Parajuli, Rabindra, "BIODIVERSITY, CARBON, AND WILDFIRES IN FOREST ECOSYSTEMS: EXAMINING DEAD WOOD’S INFLUENCE BY INTEGRATING META-ANALYTIC, HIERARCHICAL & SIMULATION MODELING APPROACHES" (2024). Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present. 1374.
https://digitalcommons.fau.edu/etd_general/1374
Identifier
FA00014456
Comments
Includes bibliography.|Dissertation (PhD)--Florida Atlantic University, 2024.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Includes bibliography.