Paleoecological Perspectives on Fire Ecology: Revisiting the Fire-Regime Concept~!2009-09-02~!2009-11-09~!2010-03-05~!

Paleoecological Perspectives on Fire Ecology: Revisiting the Fire-Regime Concept

Fire is well recognized as a key Earth system process, but its causes and influences vary greatly across spatial and temporal scales. The controls of fire are often portrayed as a set of superimposed triangles, with processes ranging from oxygen to weather to climate, combustion to fuel to vegetation, and local to landscape to regional drivers over broadening spatial and lengthening temporal sc...

Metrafenone 11/03/09

Fire regime changes in the Western Mediterranean Basin: from fuel-limited to drought-driven fire regime

Wildfires are an integral part of Mediterranean ecosystems; humans impact on landscapes imply changes in fuel amount and continuity, and thus in fire regime. We tested the hypothesis that fire regime changed in western Mediterranean Basin during the last century using time series techniques. We first compiled a 130-yr fire history for the Valencia province (Spain, Eastern Iberian Peninsula, Wes...

Bark thickness and fire regime

1. Bark is a vital and very visible part of woody plants, yet only recently has bark characteristics started to be considered as key traits structuring communities and biomes. Bark thickness is very variable among woody plants, and I hypothesize that fire is a key factor selecting for a thick bark, and thus, at the global scale, a significant proportion of the variability in bark thickness is e...

Fire Ecology and Fire Management in the Southern Appalachians: Rationale for and Effects of Prescribed Fire

Fire suppression in the Southern Appalachians has led to changes in forests dominated by yellow pine (Pinus subgenus pinus) and oak (Quercus) species. Recently, management agencies have begun to prescribe fire with the aim of restoring pre-suppression conditions. Here, I examine the use of prescribed fire in the Southern Appalachians from two perspectives. First, I review the values and goals t...