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The frequency of disturbances is an important factor contributing to the megabiodiversity of Mexico, and fire is a prominent disturbance in this region. Here I briefly summarise important aspects of fire ecology in Mexico and intr...
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The frequency of disturbances is an important factor contributing to the megabiodiversity of Mexico, and fire is a prominent disturbance in this region. Here I briefly summarise important aspects of fire ecology in Mexico and introduce a new book for fire science in this country: Incendios de la vegetacion (Vegetation fires) by D. Rodriguez-Trejo. The book covers many fire topics including fire ecology, fire behaviour, fire management, fire history and the anthropology of fire, and provides a basis for sustainable vegetation management in the region; it also advocates for the use of fire as a management tool. The message is that the biodiversity of Mexico, and therefore its management, cannot be understood without considering fire.
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Landscape fire regimes in the Earth system are believed to be changing rapidly. These changes will have significant environmental consequences since fires are a key ecological process in flammable ecosystems with feedbacks on carb...
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Landscape fire regimes in the Earth system are believed to be changing rapidly. These changes will have significant environmental consequences since fires are a key ecological process in flammable ecosystems with feedbacks on carbon cycling, soil fertility, biodiversity and regional climate patterns. Based on the evolution of fire regimes in Mediterranean biomes, as illustrated by the case of Spain, this article suggests that one of the leading causes of these transformations was the disruption of the pre-industrial anthropogenic fire regimes (PIAFRs) that helped shape these anthropogenic biomes. State-led industrialization policies and fire exclusion transformed the local communities that generated PIAFRs in all likelihood contributing to today's fire regime changes. In light of the challenges posed by climate change this article suggests that fire governance policies in these biomes should be opened to greater scrutiny and argues for interdisciplinary research into PIAFRs with ABM/LUCC models to further this goal.
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Understanding the longevity of fuel treatments in terms of their ability to maintain fire behavior and effects within a desired range is an important question. The objective of this study was to determine how fuels, forest structu...
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Understanding the longevity of fuel treatments in terms of their ability to maintain fire behavior and effects within a desired range is an important question. The objective of this study was to determine how fuels, forest structure, and predicted fire behavior changed 7-years after initial treatments. Three different treatments: mechanical only, mechanical plus fire, and prescribed fire only, as well as untreated control, were each randomly applied to 3 of 12 experimental units. Many aspects of the initial fuel treatments changed in 7 years. The overall hazard of the control units increased significantly indicating continued passive management has further increased already high fire hazards. Mechanical only fire hazard decreased after 7 years and are now similar to the two fire treatments, which both maintained low hazards throughout the study. Tree density declined significantly 7 years after the initial fire only treatments, while basal area in both fire treatments was unchanged relative to immediate post-treatment conditions. Our findings indicating reduced fire hazard over time in mechanical only treatments might provide an opportunity for a staggered treatment schedule that included prescribed fire which could increase overall treatment longevity to approximately 20 years. Changes in our mixed conifer forests after fuel treatment were generally larger than those reported from ponderosa pine forests in the Rocky Mountains.
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Bowman et al. (Journal of Biogeography, 2011, 38, 2223-2236) attempt a synthesis of the current status of study into human use of fire as an ecosystem management tool and provide a framework for guiding research on the human dimen...
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Bowman et al. (Journal of Biogeography, 2011, 38, 2223-2236) attempt a synthesis of the current status of study into human use of fire as an ecosystem management tool and provide a framework for guiding research on the human dimensions of global fire.While we applaud this ambitious effort, we believe the proposed 'py-ric phase and transition' model to be too deterministic and simplistic to account for the complexity and diversity in human-fire relationships. After reviewing theoretical problems withthe proposed framework, we question policy implications of their conclusions concerning tropical forest systems. We suggest that a theoretically informed perspective should build on an historical fire ecology framework for investigating social and ecological aspects of human-environment interactions.
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Pine-oak forests cover 14.2 million hectares in Mexico, a country that has the richest pine and oak diversity in the world. These diverse forests are a source of goo ds and services for rural and urban society, but they are being ...
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Pine-oak forests cover 14.2 million hectares in Mexico, a country that has the richest pine and oak diversity in the world. These diverse forests are a source of goo ds and services for rural and urban society, but they are being degraded and deforested. A cause of degradation is the alteration of the fire regime caused by fire exclusion or excessive burning. Little information is available on ho w to restore ecologically appropriate fire regimes in Mexican pine-oak ecosystems. Less is known about the fire ecology of the oak species. To determine which of these pine-oak and oak forests are firemaintained and which are sensitive to fires, and to provide insight into the restoration of appropriate fire regimes, this paper categorizes oak species according to the following characteristics: climate and type of vegetation, environment and succession, fire regime, growth form, vegetative regeneration, regeneration niche, acorn size, foliage type, bark thickness, subgenus, and understory. Frequent lo w-intensity surface fires are recommended for the restoration and maintenance of many of these forests and to reduce the ecological, economic, and firefighting impacts that result from large-magnitude wildfires, although it is recognized that for some species of pine and oak, periodic high-intensity fires are required. Because the source of more than 40% of the wildfires in Mexico is agricultural and grazing activities, it is essential to consider the needs of rural co mmunities who use fire for their livelihood, and how burning might help restore and maintain these ecosystems.
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Changes to soil nutrient concentrations following vegetation fire may affect biogeochemical cycling and foliar stoichiometry. Phosphorus (P)-limited plant communities are widespread and may be particularly sensitive to fire, but h...
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Changes to soil nutrient concentrations following vegetation fire may affect biogeochemical cycling and foliar stoichiometry. Phosphorus (P)-limited plant communities are widespread and may be particularly sensitive to fire, but have received relatively little research attention in this context.
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Indigenous fire management is experiencing a resurgence worldwide. Northern Australia is the world leader in Indigenous savanna burning, delivering social, cultural, environmental and economic benefits. In 2016, a greenhouse gas a...
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Indigenous fire management is experiencing a resurgence worldwide. Northern Australia is the world leader in Indigenous savanna burning, delivering social, cultural, environmental and economic benefits. In 2016, a greenhouse gas abatement fire program commenced in the savannas of south-eastern Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, managed by the Indigenous Yugul Mangi rangers. We undertook participatory action research and semi-structured interviews with rangers and Elders during 2016 and 2019 to investigate Indigenous knowledge and obtain local feedback about fire management. Results indicated that Indigenous rangers effectively use cross-cultural science (including local and Traditional Ecological Knowledge alongside western science) to manage fire. Fire management is a key driver in the production of bush tucker (wild food) resources and impacts other cultural and ecological values. A need for increased education and awareness about Indigenous burning was consistently emphasized. To address this, the project participants developed the Yugul Mangi Faiya En Sisen Kelenda (Yugul Mangi Fire and Seasons Calendar) that drew on Indigenous knowledge of seasonal biocultural indicators to guide the rangers' fire management planning. The calendar has potential for application in fire management planning, intergenerational transfer of Indigenous knowledge and locally driven adaptive fire management.
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In boreal forests of eastern Canada, the end of the little ice age (ca. 1850) coincided with a lengthening of mean fire return intervals, which has been hypothesized to increase the abundance of late-successional forests dominated...
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In boreal forests of eastern Canada, the end of the little ice age (ca. 1850) coincided with a lengthening of mean fire return intervals, which has been hypothesized to increase the abundance of late-successional forests dominated by balsam fir. This increase could have generated unusually severe eastern spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana) outbreaks from 1910 onward. The aim of this paper is to simulate the effect of various changes of fire return intervals on regional-scale balsam fir abundance, and to examine potential effect on spruce budworm outbreaks. We developed a regional-scale succession model based on empirical information on fire return intervals, fire sizes (using a reverse Weibull function) and post-fire successional trends (using a logistic growth function), based on an extensive dataset collected in a 65,000 km(2) section of the boreal forest located in eastern Quebec. The simulations indicate that lenghtening the fire return intervals from 300 to 500 years, or from 100 to 300 years, can increase mean balsam fir basal area by 1.3-5.7 m(2)/ha at the regional scale, or increase the proportion of stands dominated by balsam fir by 3.5% to 25%. However this increase takes place very gradually, corresponding with the time needed for the forest age-class structure to reach a new equilibrium following the change in fire rate. overall, we estimate that it is unlikely that an increase in balsam fir abundance following a change in fire return intervals around 1850 was sufficient to explain the change in outbreak patterns observed in the early 20th century.
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Over the last seven decades, the Mediterranean-type shrublands of the Swartberg Mountain Range (170 856 ha), South Africa, have been subject to divergent fire management policies. Management objectives sequentially focused on graz...
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Over the last seven decades, the Mediterranean-type shrublands of the Swartberg Mountain Range (170 856 ha), South Africa, have been subject to divergent fire management policies. Management objectives sequentially focused on grazing, fire control, water and biodiversity conservation during successive fire management periods. The aim of the present study was to explore the factors that determined the prevailing fire regime patterns during these fire management periods. This was considered particularly relevant in view of the ongoing debate on the relative role of fuel characteristics versus weather and ignition rates in shaping fire regime patterns. The extent of burning followed climatic cycles of alternating periods of relatively high temperatures and summer rainfall with cooler periods and increased winter rainfall. Accordingly, fires occurred more extensively during the former and were largely unaffected by the absence or presence of fire control measures. Fire return intervals were strongly inversely related to productivity of the vegetation. Long-term means between 30 and 55 years were found to apply in low-altitude xeric shrubland types. Corresponding fire return intervals were generally shorter in mesic shrublands at mid to high altitudes (15-30 years). Proteoid shrublands younger than 6 years were practically non-flammable. Two basic fire regime scenarios were identified. Fire regime patterns in xeric shrublands at lower altitudes were largely controlled by the rate of fuel accumulation, whereas climatically controlled ignition frequencies and fire climate constituted the dominant controls in proteoid shrublands at mid to high altitudes. The spatiotemporal distribution of fire regime parameters (fire frequencies, season, size and intensity) as recorded in the present study for the Swartberg Mountain Range under natural fire zone management (predominance of lightning fires since 1980), appeared to be conducive to the maintenance of biodiversity according to our current understanding of the fire-vegetation system..
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The fundamental and primordial relevance of wildland fire to ecosystem processes and human activities is undisputed (Bowman et al., 2009 D.M. Bowman, J.M. Carlson, M.S.A. Cochrane, C.M. D’Antonio, R.S. DeFries, J.C. Doyle, S.P. H...
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The fundamental and primordial relevance of wildland fire to ecosystem processes and human activities is undisputed (Bowman et al., 2009 D.M. Bowman, J.M. Carlson, M.S.A. Cochrane, C.M. D’Antonio, R.S. DeFries, J.C. Doyle, S.P. Harrison, F.H. Johnston, J.E. Keeley, M.A. Krawchuk, C.A. Kull, J.B. Marston, M.A. Moritz, I.C. Prentice, C.I. Roos, A.C. Scott, T.W. Swetnam,G.R. van der Werf and S.J. Pyne, Fire in the Earth system. Science, 324 (2009), pp. 481–484. Bowman et al., 2009). Not only is fire the most pervasive natural disturbance on Earth (Lavorel et al., 2007) but also its global incidence is expected to increase with future climate change (Pechony and Shindell, 2010). Learning to live with fire is an imperative, as fire cannot and should not be excluded from fire-prone environments, where it is often needed for land management and/or ecosystem maintenance( [Burrows, 2008] and [Pausas and Keeley, 2009] ).
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