Management implications of fire and climate change in the western Americas

MORGAN, P. ; DEFOSSÉ G. E.; RODRÍGUEZ, N. F.

Fire and climate change in temperate ecosystems of the western Americas

Springer

Lugar: Jena; Año: 2003; p. 413 - 441

This chapter deals with the management implications of fire in the western Americas. Fires have shaped the structure, composition, and function of temperate ecosystems worldwide. In many forest, shrubland, and grassland ecosystems of temperate and boreal zones (i.e. Western North America and Andean Patagonia in Argentina), biomass production exceeds decomposition. When lightning or people ignite fires, and when the weather and climatic conditions are conducive, this accumulated dead and live biomass burns. Particularly when these fires burn in extremely hot, dry, windy conditions, they threaten people and their property. That fire has played an important ecological role in these ecosystems makes fire management challenging, for ecological integrity and sustainability depend on fires and other disturbances.  This chapter focuses in commonalities in environment, human history, and fire management policy in temperate and boreal forest zones of North and South America. We use three broad fire regime classes to frame our discussion. Climate change offers some great challenges to researchers. One is predicting the impact of climate change. A second is understanding the synergies among fire, vegetation, land use, atmosphere, and climate. A third is communicating those lessons clearly enough that managers, policy makers, and others can decide how the associated challenges in fire management should be addressed. This volume offers much of use to managers, just as it raises further questions for scientists. The great challenge for the future is for scientists and managers towork together to anticipate how climate change, land use, and vegetation will interact with fire in the future.