FHX2 - Software for Analyzing Temporal and Spatial Patterns in Fire Regimes from Tree Rings

Abstract

Many studies use the temporal record of dendrochronologically-dated fire scars to document properties of fire regimes before human interference (e.g. fire suppression, logging, and agriculture) became pervasive. Such reconstructions provide vital information that can be used by land management agencies when designing and implementing fire management policies, and are especially useful for justifying the reintroduction of fire to areas where fire has long been excluded by humans. Tree-ring based fire history studies produce large quantities of data that require efficient tools for compilation, organization, and analysis. In this paper, I describe the development and use of FHX2, software comprised of individual modules designed specifically for (1) entering and archiving of fire history data, (2) creating graphs that display both temporal and spatial features of the site fire history, (3) conducting statistical analyses on fire intervals and seasonality, and (4) performing superposed epoch analysis to analyze climate /wildfire interactions. Although designed to analyze fire history, the software can be used to analyze any set of events recorded in the tree- ring record, such as growth suppressions and releases, floods, and insect outbreaks.