Senior Project Advisor
Michael Medler
Document Type
Project
Publication Date
Spring 2023
Keywords
fire regimes, accessibility, color blindness, color deficiency, color contrast, pie charts, graphic design, pyrogeography, animal fire responses, fire ecology
Abstract
The following document contains an assembly of 21 pie charts depicting proportions of animal during-fire responses across ecosystems and groups of specific animals within those ecosystems. For further clarification, a good example would be the Coastal Redwoods Ecosystem Pie Charts, which depict a general chart for all animal fire responses before displaying bird fire responses and mammal fire responses in separate charts. The pie charts were originally created for a group ENVS 429 capstone project before being modified based on accessibility guidelines and Edward Tufte’s graphic design principles. This project and its ENVS 429 predecessor are valuable because animal fire responses are relatively under researched, which in turn poses significant land management and policy challenges. While both projects have significant limitations as they stand, further development of either could eventually produce a resource that can help land managers, policymakers, and other working professionals better understand how animals in different ecosystems react to fire. What makes this project particularly significant is that it presents this information in as accessible of a manner as possible, utilizing graphic design principles and accessibility guidelines to make the information of each chart as legible as possible.
Department
Environmental Studies
Recommended Citation
Ginster, Michael, "Visualizing Animal Fire Responses" (2023). WWU Honors College Senior Projects. 719.
https://cedar.wwu.edu/wwu_honors/719
Subjects - Topical (LCSH)
Fire ecology; Fire ecology--Charts, diagrams, etc.; Wildfires--Charts, diagrams, etc.; Animals--Charts, diagrams, etc.;
Type
Text
Rights
Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.
Language
English
Format
application/pdf