Fire Ecology Simulator by Richard Rathe
Cycles 0 Ltng 0 Fire 0 Climate Rain 4Background
Fire is a necessary feature of many ecosystems. It helps clear out old growth and often prevents dominance by one or more climax species. Some plants even specialize to exploit the ecological opportunities created by fire. This simulator attempts to capture some of these dynamics.
Basic Structure
The Grid above represents a forest divided into hexagonal cells. Some of these are occupied by water or rocks , which obviously do not burn. Three tree species (outlined below) compete for the open land that remains. Trees have specific reproductive rules and lifespans, dying naturally if they are not otherwise disturbed.
Rainfall (0-9) is the major variable that affects tree growth and the spread of fires. Rainfall in turn is affected by Climate, represented by a positive or negative value on the pulldown menu. Drought conditions will also lead to the death of random trees not near water.
Lightening strikes occur at random and sometimes lead to fires . Fires spread randomly and are stopped by water or rocks.
Grass covers open areas after a fire or when trees die of old age. Grasslands remain forever if not colonized by trees.
Poplar is the fastest growing but shortest-lived tree species. It can quickly colonize grassland due to its wind-borne seeds, but it cannot penetrate established stands of other tree species.
Pine is longer-lived than poplar, but requires a nearby seed tree to reproduce. It is fire-adapted and can take over from other species.
Cedar is the longest-lived species but is fire-intolerant. It will only reproduce in areas where fire has been absent for several cycles.
History
Back in 1978, as a Biology major at Carleton College, I did my senior thesis on the Fire Ecology of Northern Minnesota. A few years later I wrote my first fire ecology simulation program on a fancy handheld calculator with a multi-color pen plotter. A few years after that I rewrote the program using Hypercard on an early Mac computer. This third iteration is based on Web Standards and will run on any modern browser or smartphone.
Data Output (CSV)