Fire Ecology

The ingression of woody plants into savannas, known as bush or shrub encroachment, has become a global
concern. Fire has been acknowledged as a key factor in managing woody vegetation in savannas. This study
assessed the role of fire in determining the total density, structure and composition of woody vegetation in Ithala
Game Reserve, northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. We surveyed woody vegetation in comparable areas with
different fire frequencies. In Combretum-dominated woodlands, there was no significant effect of fire frequency
on the total density of woody individuals. In old field grasslands, the density of woody plants was greater in
areas burnt annually and in areas burnt once every 10 years, compared to areas burnt once every 2–4 years.
In these grasslands, areas burnt annually were dominated by woody plants 2 m in height. Herbivore and fire
interactions may explain these results. Multivariate analyses also indicated a significant effect of fire frequency
on woody vegetation composition. To control dominant encroaching trees such as Dichrostachys cinerea and
Acacia karroo (Vachellia karroo), and the development of macrophyllous thickets, an intermediate fire frequency
is required (one burn every 2–4 years).

Climate change is increasing the frequency and extent of high-severity disturbance, with potential to alter vegetation community composition and structure in environments sensitive to tipping points between alternative states. Shrub species display a range of characteristics that promote resistance and resilience to disturbance, and which yield differential post-disturbance outcomes. We investigated differences in shrub patch size and stem density in response to variations in fire severity, vegetation community, and post-disturbance reproductive strategies in Sky Island forested ecosystems in the southwestern United States. Patterns in shrub structure reflect the effects of fire severity as well as differences among species with alternate post-fire reproductive strategies. Increased fire severity correlates with larger patch sizes and greater stem densities; these patterns are observed across multiple fire events, indicating that disturbance legacies can persist for decades. High severity fire produces the largest shrub patches, and variance in shrub patch size increases with severity. High severity fire is likely to promote expansion of shrub species on the landscape, with implications for future community structure. Resprouting species have the greatest variability in patch structure, while seeding species show a strong response to disturbance: resprouting species dominate at low disturbance severities, and obligate seeders dominate high severity areas. Differential post-fire reproductive strategies are likely to generate distinct patterns of vegetation distribution following disturbance, with implications for community composition at various scales. Shrub species demonstrate flexible responses to wildfire disturbance severity that are reflected in shrub patch dynamics at small and intermediate scales.

The development of frameworks for better-understanding ecological syndromes and putative evolutionary strategies of plant adaptation to fire has recently received a flurry of attention, including a new model hypothesizing that plants have diverged into three different plant flammability strategies due to natural selection. We provide three case studies of pyromes/taxa (Pinus, the Proteaceae of the Cape Floristic Region, and Eucalyptus) that, contrary to model assumptions, reveal that plant species often exhibit traits of more than one of these flammability and post-fire recovery strategies. We propose that such multiple-strategy adaptations have been favoured as bet-hedging strategies in response to selective pressure from mixed-fire regimes experienced by these species over evolutionary time.

Aunque los pastizales/sabanas del Chaco Semiárido sudamericano se han lignificado masivamente,
la ecología del fenómeno es poco conocida y las iniciativas de restauración son casi inexistentes. Aportamos
información sobre: 1) las diferencias en la estructura y la diversidad vegetal a lo largo de un gradiente de
lignificación, y 2) la asociación de atributos estructurales y funcionales con factores ambientales. En 38
unidades de muestreo obtuvimos la cobertura arbórea y arbustiva, biomasa herbácea, riqueza y composición
de gramíneas y leñosas, y diversos tipos funcionales de herbáceas (principalmente de gramíneas). Los factores
ambientales fueron intensidad histórica de pastoreo y frecuencia de fuego. En relación con el punto 1: a) la
cobertura arbustiva fue significativa y progresivamente mayor a lo largo del gradiente de lignificación, y
superó ampliamente a la cobertura arbórea, b) la biomasa herbácea fue significativamente menor con una
cobertura leñosa alta (x̄=89.7%), c) la riqueza de gramíneas fue máxima en niveles intermedios de cobertura
leñosa (x̄=39.3% y 64%), d) la disimilitud en la composición de gramíneas, fue máxima entre los niveles muy
bajo y alto de cobertura leñosa (x̄=15.8% y 89.7%), y e) la riqueza y composición de leñosas fueron uniformes
a lo largo del gradiente de lignificación. En cuanto al punto 2: 1) el incremento en la intensidad histórica de
pastoreo se asoció significativa y fuertemente con la reducción en la frecuencia de fuego, lo cual, a su vez,
se asoció significativamente con el incremento en la cobertura arbórea y arbustiva y con el decrecimiento en
la biomasa herbácea (sugiriendo que el sobrepastoreo reduce o elimina la ocurrencia de fuegos de pastizal y
promueve la lignificación), y 2) diversos tipos funcionales de gramíneas se asociaron significativamente con
la intensidad histórica de pastoreo y la frecuencia de fuego. Nuestros resultados sirven para trazar estrategias
para restaurar y manejar los pastizales/sabanas.

The article shows the burning practices used by native northern hunters-gatherers and reindeer herders of Western Siberia as a potential factor of impact on surrounding landscapes. In this sense, the research focuses primarily on aspects of practical importance in the fields of cultural ecology and ethnoarchaeology. The controlled burning of grass, shrubs, and deadwood has been a very effective landscape management tool, though not a common practice among northern natives of Western Siberia. It helped certain groups of them restore the productivity of berry bushes, attract wild ungulates and create better conditions for reindeer herding and travelling, as well as to protect the territory from devastating forest fires. There are some Western Siberian ethnic groups who traditionally have had more freedom in the use of fire (Evenks) and others whose actions in this field have been rather rigidly regulated by traditional rules and beliefs (Ob Ugrians and Selkups). The Tundra and Forest Nenets probably combined their culture features with both of the mentioned groups. This allows us to suggest a version that a relatively freer use of fire is generally a typical feature of the nomadic population. Several areas were revealed in Western Siberia, where the peoples of the North had practiced intentional burning (or supposedly could do it) in order to obtain additional economic benefit from their lands – the Konda river valley, Upper Taz river area and interfluve of Demyanka and Turtas rivers. The local Khanty and Mansi groups of the Konda river valley adopted this use of fire from the neighboring Siberian Tatars or Russians in 1860-70th. Simultaneously, it was also a real paradigm shift in the spheres of traditional beliefs and land use practices of the Ob-Ugrian communities. The last two areas were associated with local groups of Evenks, the people who were brought into disrepute in Siberia and the Far East as arsonists of the taiga. As ethnographic data shows, on the one hand, this was a prejudiced opinion, on the other hand, there were factors that contributed to its formation.

Although forest fires have become a critical question in Mexico following the fire season of 1998, there is little knowledge regarding the effects of fire events on forest structure, composition, and dynamics in mixed pine-oak forests in northern Mexico. Objective of this ...

The behavioral adaptations of primates to fire-modified landscapes are of considerable interest to anthropologists because fire is fundamental to life in the African savanna—the  setting in which genus Homo evolved. Here we report the behavioral responses of a savanna-dwelling primate, vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus aethiops), to fire-induced ecological change. Using behavioral and spatial data to characterize ranging patterns prior to and postburn and between burn and nonburn years, we show that these primates inhabiting small,
spatially bound, riverine habitats take advantage of newly burned savanna landscapes. When subjects encountered controlled fires, they did not flee but instead avoided the path of the fire seemingly unbothered by its approach. After fire, the primates’ home range expanded into newly burned but previously unused areas. These results contribute to understanding the response of non-human primates to fire-modified landscapes and can shed light on the nature and scope of opportunities and constraints posed by the emergence
of fire-affected landscapes in the past. Results also expose deficiencies in our knowledge of fire-related behavioral responses in the primate lineage and highlight the need for further investigation of these responses as they relate to foraging opportunities, migration, resource use, and especially fire-centric adaptations in our own genus.

Fires have been important in the Klamath-Siskiyou for millennia.  Where burn severities are mixed, as they are in much of the Klamath-Siskiyou, fires may be instrumental in creating landscape heterogeneity.  Landscape heterogeneity is linked to structural and taxonomic diversity, for which the Klamath-Siskiyou region is renowned.  We recently analyzed spatial patterns of fire severity in a 98,814 ha area burned in 1987 to evaluate
the role of fire in creating landscape diversity. The study area was in the Marble and Trinity Mountains area, which is dominated by Douglas-fir and tanoak forests.  We found that fire severity was mostly low (59% of the area), but that patchy high severity fire (12% percent of the area) also occurred.  In forests and sclerophyll vegetation where fire had been previously absent for many decades less high severity fire was found, whereas those that had burned previously in prior decades had more high severity fire.  Therefore, the length of fire-free intervals can influence the production of high severity patches in
the landscape.  Fire interval may also determine the persistence of these patches, which return to forest vegetation following many decades without stand-replacing fire.  The high degree of spatial and temporal variation in fire in our study area results in a landscape of complex and dynamic patches of differing ages.  Patch dynamics differ in landscapes containing even-aged plantations.  We found these burned with twice the
severity of closed forests.  Positive feedback between plantations and fire, and the persistence of plantations over fire intervals of any length favor the filling in of
landscapes with structurally and biologically simplified vegetation.

This paper discusses a couple of basic methodological problems inherent in predictive modelling as used today in mapping the location of Stone Age settlements based solely on landscape topography/bathymetry. It argues that the modelling approach employed is based on elements adopted from a type of landscape ecology that was abandoned more than 20 years ago, because it was unable to produce reasonable results, and that it can be
difficult to develop prediction methodology based on the present understanding of landscape ecology as being
extremely complex and dynamic. Furthermore, it maintains that the modelling approach currently employed in Stone Age archaeology is based on assumptions about prehistoric resource-strategic behaviour that are simplistic and out of tune with what we now know. It therefore questions whether it is possible to develop a precise and efficient predictive procedure for modelling the locations of Stone Age sites.

Mountain hollyhock, Iliamna rivularis (Douglas ex Hooker) Greene (Malvaceae) is a native wildflower of the intermountain west that commonly occurs in    aspen-fir communities. I.rivularis seed have high dormancy rates that limit its use in restoration and commercial seed production. We examined the germination of this species using scarification and stratification treatments commonly used to enhance germination of other forb species. Batches of seed were treated and stratified for 0, 8, or 16 weeks and then placed in an incubator. Germination was counted after 7, 14, and 21 days. The highest germination rates were achieved with a 15 sec. boiling water treatment, a 9 min. sulfuric acid treatment, and a 7 sec. mechanical scarification treatment reaching 41, 59, and 99% germination respectively. The study control reached a maximum of 5% germination.

A variety of chemicals including foaming agents are used to aid in the protection of forest resources from the wild land fires. The fire-fighting foams (FFFs) are formulations composed principally of surfactants. As a part of Japanese national project, environmentally inert FFFs have been developed. There is an emerging need for testing the impacts of these FFFs on the living organisms composing the typical landscapes or ecosystems in Japan. In the present report, we aimed to describe our latest attempt for assessing both the short-tem and long-term impacts of FFFs in aquatic (fresh water) and semi-aquatic (wetland) ecosystems , by employing the laboratory-sized model assays (preliminary studies) and the biotope-based observation, respectively. In the biotope assays which was based on the observation in compact biotopes mimicking the fresh water environments and wetland, both the acute and long-term eco-toxic impacts of two FFFs (soap-based and synthetic detergent-based) were assessed. Spraying of synthetic detergent-based foam formula was shown to be more toxic compared to soap-based formula and mock water treatment.

We did this project as part of a survey for a Timber Salvage Project in Sequoia National Forest.
Citation: 1991 Archaeobotanical Remains from 05-13-52-88 (CA-TUL-569). In Cultural Resources Inventory of the Proposed Divide Salvage Area, Tule River Ranger District, Sequoia National Forest. by B. P. Wickstrom and K. Roper Wickstrom, BioSystems Analysis, Inc., Santa Cruz, CA.


Moore et al (2008) from the USGS describe these basins as follows: "Meter-size granite basins are found in a 180-km belt extending south from the South Fork of the Kings River to Lake Isabella on the west slope of the southern Sierra Nevada, California. Their origin has long been debated. A total of 1,033 basins have been inventoried at 221 sites. The basins occur on bedrock granitic outcrops at a median elevation of 1,950 m. Median basin diameter among 30 of the basin sites varies from 89 to 170 cm, median depth is 12 to 63 cm. Eighty percent of the basin sites also contain smaller bedrock mortars (~1-2 liters in capacity) of the type used by Native Americans (American Indians) to grind acorns. Features that suggest a manmade origin for the basins are: restricted size, shape, and elevation range; common association with Indian middens and grinding mortars; a south- and west-facing aspect; presence of differing shapes in distinct localities; and location in a food-rich belt with pleasant summer weather. Volcanic ash (erupted A.D. 1240+-60) in the bottom of several of the basins indicates that they were used shortly before ~760 years ago but not thereafter. Experiments suggest that campfires built on the granite will weaken the bedrock and expedite excavation of the basins. The primary use of the basins was apparently in preparing food, including acorns and pine nuts. The basins are among the largest and most permanent artifacts remaining from the California Indian civilization." https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/sir20085210

America’s Fires – a brief, straightforwardly organised, tersely argued book with a national focus – is perhaps Pyne’s most accessible demonstration of why fire histories matter, how to think about them, and how to go about writing them. This book and this subject are relevant to environmental historians of other parts of the globe because, despite Pyne’s herculean efforts, the fire histories of large areas of our planet – today experiencing major wildfires – remain to be written.

A B S T R A C T Changes in land-use and climate increase the flammability of forests across southeast Amazonia, potentially driving abrupt fire-mediated transitions to derived savannas – grass-dominated degraded forests with scattered trees. However, the extent to which the forest fauna undergoes a parallel process remains poorly understood. Here we test the hypothesis that the process of fire-driven forest shifts towards derived savannas has congruent cascading effects on ant communities by causing declines in forest specialists and an influx of open-habitat taxa. In 2013 we collected ants using subterranean, epigaeic and arboreal pitfall traps in three adjacent 50-ha plots: an unburnt control and two treatment plots that were burnt either triennially or annually from 2004 to 2010. Frequent fire was associated with a marked decline of specialist forest species (almost 50%), and an influx of open-habitat taxa that were absent from the unburnt plot. The effects were particularly pronounced for epigaeic ants: their abundance, biomass, species richness and species composition were impacted by fires, and this was the main stratum occupied by the open-habitat species. Previous studies have shown that a similar conversion is not triggered by single fires, and they therefore require recurrent fires. Our results provide experimental evidence that the process of tropical forest conversion towards derived savannas caused by repeated burning is a broad one that affects not only plants, but involves parallel compositional shifts of animal communities. The prevention of recurrent fires is a priority challenge for avoiding widespread biotic conversion of tropical forests to derived savannas.

This training manual was develop for the DRC and more broadly for Central Africa and aims to build community resilience by teaching integrated fire management concepts and skills, including fire management planning, fire preparedness, fire ecology, prescribed burning methods, and how to avoid unplanned fires, at the local level. This manual provides various training options for different target audiences. It is divided into three levels progressing from introductory to expert. Modules within each level can be further adapted to specific training contexts. Trainers should always adapt the material to local conditions.

It is becoming clear that we are living through a period in which our relationships to the basic conditions of existence are being fundamentally unsettled: fire, climate change, storms, and viruses are changing how we live. Songwriters, poets and film-makers are increasingly setting their narratives in the end of days. Journalists go on journeys to the dark side to meet mid-western survivalists and purveyors of luxury underground bunkers. Social theorists write about living through the end-times. This chapter explores how the fires of Australia's Black Summer represent an elemental turning point in how we live on this planet.

Climate-changed California is the contemporary staging ground
for the long-standing collision and entanglement of the Indigenous and
Euro-American fire regimes explored in this essay. Specifically, I
consider how baskets handwoven by Native women from two distinct,
flame-sculpted regions index the shifting political ecology of fire in
California. My account concentrates on Chumash territory on the
southern coast, where Spaniards first prohibited Indigenous fire-setting
in 1793, and concludes in Yurok territory in the northern Klamath River
Basin, where cultural burning and weaving are undergoing an
entwined revitalization. Woven vessels are the foundation of
customary Indigenous cultures in California, notably women’s landcare
practices that entail the application of fire. Robin Wall Kimmerer
and Frank Kanawha Lake assert that across North America, “the ethic
of reciprocal responsibility underlies the indigenous use of fire, an
adaptive symbiosis in which humans and nonhumans both benefit
from burning.” People and plants are seen as coequals, codependents,
and even cocreators, woven together by pragmatic and spiritual
threads. Baskets embody this multifaceted, mutually constitutive
relationship. Woven from roots, stems, feathers, and shells,
they assemble more-than-human collectives. Together, they catalog the radical transformations of colonialism on the habitat and habitus of Native Californians—a process that I argue is driven by conflicting fire imaginaries that differentially define relationships between humans and land.

Woody plant encroachment is frequent in dry savannas. Grazing is often considered to be a major cause of encroachment in dry savannas because grasses are removed by livestock, leaving bare areas for trees to colonise in wetter years. Earlier experiments conducted in the Kimberley area of the Northern Cape showed that neither fire nor grazing was important for woody plant encroachment. We used aerial and fixed-point repeat ground
photographs, including historical photographs taken at the time of the Second Anglo-Boer War of 1899–1902, to assess the scale and timing of woody plant encroachment in the dry savannas near Kimberley in South Africa (mean annual rainfall = 300–400 mm). There were large increases in woody plant encroachment in most areas. Even at the battlefield of Magersfontein, where grazing has been virtually absent since its protection in 1960, we
found that encroachment by trees and shrubs has occurred. Using aerial photographs, we found that the rate of encroachment has increased substantially since 1993. However, repeated photographs at certain sites indicate that
encroachment produced cohorts of trees. We show that global drivers are perhaps of greater importance than local drivers such as heavy grazing and absence of fire.

Literature on the modeling and simulation of complex adaptive systems (cas) has primarily advanced vertically in different scientific domains with scientists developing a variety of domain-specific approaches and applications. However, while cas researchers are inherently interested in an interdisciplinary comparison of models, to the best of our knowledge, there is currently no single unified framework for facilitating the development, comparison, communication and validation of models across different scientific domains. In this thesis, we propose first steps towards such a unified framework using a combination of agent-based and complex network-based modeling approaches and guidelines formulated in the form of a set of four levels of usage, which allow multidisciplinary researchers to adopt a suitable framework level on the basis of available data types, their research study objectives and expected outcomes, thus allowing them to better plan and conduct their respective research case studies. Firstly, the complex network modeling level of the proposed framework entails the development of appropriate complex network models for the case where interaction data of cas components is available, with the aim of detecting emergent patterns in the cas under study. The exploratory agent-based modeling level of the proposed framework allows for the development of proof-of-concept models for the cas system, primarily for purposes of exploring feasibility of further research. Descriptive agent-based modeling level of the proposed framework allows for the use of a formal step-by-step approach for developing agent-based models coupled with a quantitative complex network and pseudocode-based specification of the model, which will, in turn, facilitate interdisciplinary cas model comparison and knowledge transfer. Finally, the validated agent-based modeling level of the proposed framework is concerned with the building of in-simulation verification and validation of agent-based models using a proposed Virtual Overlay Multiagent System approach for use in a systematic team-oriented approach to developing models. The proposed framework is evaluated and validated using seven detailed case study examples selected from various scientific domains including ecology, social sciences and a range of complex adaptive communication networks. The successful case studies demonstrate the potential of the framework in appealing to multidisciplinary researchers as a methodological approach to the modeling and simulation of cas by facilitating effective communication and knowledge transfer across scientific disciplines without the requirement of extensive learning curves.

En consecuencia de fenómenos globales tales como el calentamiento global, el periodo de duración de las estaciones climáticas, el aumento de la temperatura y la contaminación por basuras, se generan condiciones propicias para el inicio de incendios en áreas de bosques o zonas de importancia, afectando la fauna, flora y las ciudades adyacentes a éstos. Además de ofrecer posibilidades de vigilancia y recolección de información
para mapeo geográfico.
Este diseño tiene como fin dar herramientas a la comunidad para la implementación de un sistema de alerta temprana y monitoreo de incendios forestales mediante tecnologías de análisis termográfico, Inteligencia artificial, IoT, Sistema de Posicionamiento Global GPS embebidos en Vehículos Aéreos no Tripulados (UAV, por sus siglas en inglés). Esta tecnología propuesta es la punta de lanza en los sistemas
autónomos para el análisis de grandes extensiones de tierra con mínimo personal de operación, maximizando el potencial de los vehículos al usar tecnologías de alimentación Híbrido – Eléctrico – Fotovoltáico y sistemas de reconocimiento de imágenes basadas en Inteligencia Artificial como son Redes Neuronales Artificiales.

As result of global phenomena such global warming, the duration of the seasons, the temperature rise and contamination by waste, favorable conditions for starting fires in wooded areas or areas of importance are generated, affecting fauna, flora and cities adjacent to them. Besides offering possibilities for monitoring and gathering information for
geographic mapping. This design intended to give tools to the community for the implementation of an early warning system and monitoring
forest fires through technologies like thermographic analysis, artificial intelligence, IoT, Global Positioning System GPS embedded in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV).
This proposed technology is the spearhead in autonomous systems for the analysis of large tracts of land with minimal staff operation, maximizing the potential of vehicles using technologies Power Hybrid - Electric - Photovoltaic and Image Recognition Systems based in Artificial intelligence like Artificial Neural Networks.