Patterns of Live Fuel Moisture in the Northern Great Basin.

Live fuel moisture is an important component of wildfire behavior in fire-prone ecosystems.   Fuel moisture content is a critical component in determining the probability of ignition, rate of forest fire spread, rate of energy release, and production of smoke by burning and smoldering fuel.  Live fuel moisture content is in part dependent on soil moisture contents, as well as meteorological variables such as temperature and vapor pressure.   Four sample sites across a precipitation gradient in central Oregon were instrumented with volumetric water moisture meters at 50cm and vegetation sampled for moisture content.  Live fuels were sampled at each site every two weeks April through October between 2008 and 2013.  Plant communities reflected the precipitation gradient. Live fuel moisture demonstrated that plant populations in the community peak in moisture content at different times.  Annual moisture content patterns of both soil and fuels are highly variable and partly tied to timing and quantity of precipitation events.  The degree of variability suggests that predicting live fuel moisture for real-time fire management, while a valuable tool, is a complex operation.