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Assessing changes in global fire regimes

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Repository DOI


Change log

Authors

Sayedi, Sayedeh Sara  ORCID logo  https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5272-4383
Abbott, Benjamin W 
Vannière, Boris 
Leys, Bérangère 
Colombaroli, Daniele 

Abstract

jats:titleAbstract</jats:title>jats:sec jats:titleBackground</jats:title> jats:pThe global human footprint has fundamentally altered wildfire regimes, creating serious consequences for human health, biodiversity, and climate. However, it remains difficult to project how long-term interactions among land use, management, and climate change will affect fire behavior, representing a key knowledge gap for sustainable management. We used expert assessment to combine opinions about past and future fire regimes from 99 wildfire researchers. We asked for quantitative and qualitative assessments of the frequency, type, and implications of fire regime change from the beginning of the Holocene through the year 2300.</jats:p> </jats:sec>jats:sec jats:titleResults</jats:title> jats:pRespondents indicated some direct human influence on wildfire since at least ~ 12,000 years BP, though natural climate variability remained the dominant driver of fire regime change until around 5,000 years BP, for most study regions. Responses suggested a ten-fold increase in the frequency of fire regime change during the last 250 years compared with the rest of the Holocene, corresponding first with the intensification and extensification of land use and later with anthropogenic climate change. Looking to the future, fire regimes were predicted to intensify, with increases in frequency, severity, and size in all biomes except grassland ecosystems. Fire regimes showed different climate sensitivities across biomes, but the likelihood of fire regime change increased with higher warming scenarios for all biomes. Biodiversity, carbon storage, and other ecosystem services were predicted to decrease for most biomes under higher emission scenarios. We present recommendations for adaptation and mitigation under emerging fire regimes, while recognizing that management options are constrained under higher emission scenarios.</jats:p> </jats:sec>jats:sec jats:titleConclusion</jats:title> jats:pThe influence of humans on wildfire regimes has increased over the last two centuries. The perspective gained from past fires should be considered in land and fire management strategies, but novel fire behavior is likely given the unprecedented human disruption of plant communities, climate, and other factors. Future fire regimes are likely to degrade key ecosystem services, unless climate change is aggressively mitigated. Expert assessment complements empirical data and modeling, providing a broader perspective of fire science to inform decision making and future research priorities.</jats:p> </jats:sec>

Description

Acknowledgements: This study emerged during the PAGES-supported Global Paleofire Working Group 2 workshop “Fire history baselines by biome” held in September 2016 at Château de la Tour, Beguey (Bordeaux, France) led by A.-L. D. and Tim Brücher. We thank Virginia Iglesias and Elizabeth Lynch for participating in this study. We thank Isabella Errigo for her assistance in generating Fig. 1a. We dedicate this manuscript to our late colleague Dr. Daniele Colombaroli.

Keywords

4101 Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation, 4102 Ecological Applications, 41 Environmental Sciences, 15 Life on Land, 13 Climate Action

Journal Title

Fire Ecology

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1933-9747
1933-9747

Volume Title

20

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Sponsorship
Trond Mohn stiftelse (TMS2022STG03)
Swiss Academy of Sciences (Swiss Academy of Sciences)
National Science Foundation (1916565, EAR-2011439, EAR-2012123)
Brigham Young University (Brigham Young University)
National Science Centre, Poland (2018/31/B/ST10/02498)
HORIZON EUROPE European Innovation Council (101026211)
Université de Bordeaux (Université de Bordeaux)
Forest research center (UIDB/00239/2020)