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Fig. 1 | Ecological Processes

Fig. 1

From: Using “management mosaics” to mitigate the impacts from extreme wildfires

Fig. 1

A model showing various frequency distributions (log) of fire severity or size (log rank order) in nature vs. under growing human activities based on Zipf's Law. In many ecosystems, small and less severe fires are numerous but large and highly severe ones are few; that is, the frequency distribution of fire intensity (severity) or size usually follow the Zipf’s Law. Human activities increase the probability of fire, but total fire suppression usually reduces the occurrence of naturally occurring small- and middle-sized fires and could increase the risk of unintended catastrophic fires due to a large amount of accumulated fuels

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