Biological and geophysical feedbacks with fire in the Earth system

S Archibald; C E R Lehmann; C M Belcher; W J Bond; R A Bradstock; A-L Daniau; K G Dexter; E J Forrestel; M Greve; T He; S I Higgins; W A Hoffmann; B B Lamont; D J McGlinn; G R Moncrieff; C P Osborne; J G Pausas; O Price; B S Ripley; B M Rogers; D W Schwilk; M F Simon; M R Turetsky; G R Van der Werf; A E Zanne

doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aa9ead

Environmental Research Letters (Jan 2018)

Biological and geophysical feedbacks with fire in the Earth system

S Archibald,
C E R Lehmann,
C M Belcher,
W J Bond,
R A Bradstock,
A-L Daniau,
K G Dexter,
E J Forrestel,
M Greve,
T He,
S I Higgins,
W A Hoffmann,
B B Lamont,
D J McGlinn,
G R Moncrieff,
C P Osborne,
J G Pausas,
O Price,
B S Ripley,
B M Rogers,
D W Schwilk,
M F Simon,
M R Turetsky,
G R Van der Werf,
A E Zanne

Affiliations

S Archibald: ORCiD; Centre for African Ecology , School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag X3, WITS, Johannesburg, 2050, South Africa; Natural Resources and the Environment , CSIR, PO Box 395, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa; Joint first authors to whom any correspondence should be addressed.
C E R Lehmann: Centre for African Ecology , School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag X3, WITS, Johannesburg, 2050, South Africa; School of GeoSciences , University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3FF, United Kingdom; Joint first authors to whom any correspondence should be addressed.
C M Belcher: Belcher C.M. , wildFIRE Lab, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4PS, United Kingdom
W J Bond: South African Environnemental Observation Network , P/Bag X7, Claremont, 7735, South Africa
R A Bradstock: Centre for Environmental Risk Management of Bushfires , Centre for Sustainable Ecosystem Solutions, University of Wollongong, Wollongong NSW 2522, Australia
A-L Daniau: CNRS , UMR 5805–EPOC, Université de Bordeaux, Allée Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, Pessac Cedex, Bordeaux, 33615, France
K G Dexter: School of GeoSciences , University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3FF, United Kingdom; Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh , Edinburgh EH3 5LR, United Kingdom
E J Forrestel: Department of Viticulture and Enology , University of California, Davis 95616, United States of America
M Greve: ORCiD; Department of Plant and Soil Sciences , University of Pretoria, Pretoria South Africa
T He: Department of Environment and Agriculture , Curtin University, Perth, WA 6845, Australia
S I Higgins: Plant Ecology , University of Bayreuth, Universitätsstraße 30, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany
W A Hoffmann: Department of Plant Biology , North Carolina State University, Campus Box 7612, Raleigh, NC, 27695-7612, United States of America
B B Lamont: Department of Environment and Agriculture , Curtin University, Perth, WA 6845, Australia
D J McGlinn: ORCiD; Department of Biology , College of Charleston, Charleston , South Carolina, United States of America
G R Moncrieff: South African Environnemental Observation Network , P/Bag X7, Claremont, 7735, South Africa
C P Osborne: Department of Animal and Plant Sciences , University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, United Kingdom
J G Pausas: ORCiD; CIDE-CSIC , Carretera CV-315, Km 10.7, Montcada, Valencia, Spain
O Price: School of Biological Sciences , University of Wollongong, Wollongong NSW 2522, Australia
B S Ripley: Department of Botany , Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa
B M Rogers: Woods Hole Research Center , 149 Woods Hole Road, Falmouth, MA, 02540, United States of America
D W Schwilk: Texas Tech University , Lubbock, Texas, United States of America
M F Simon: Embrapa Recursos Genéticos e Biotecnologia , Brasília-DF, 70770-917, Brazil
M R Turetsky: ORCiD; Department of Integrative Biology , University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada
G R Van der Werf: Faculty of Science , Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 1081HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
A E Zanne: Department of Biological Sciences , George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, United States of America

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa9ead
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 13, no. 3
p. 033003

Abstract

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Roughly 3% of the Earth’s land surface burns annually, representing a critical exchange of energy and matter between the land and atmosphere via combustion. Fires range from slow smouldering peat fires, to low-intensity surface fires, to intense crown fires, depending on vegetation structure, fuel moisture, prevailing climate, and weather conditions. While the links between biogeochemistry, climate and fire are widely studied within Earth system science, these relationships are also mediated by fuels—namely plants and their litter—that are the product of evolutionary and ecological processes. Fire is a powerful selective force and, over their evolutionary history, plants have evolved traits that both tolerate and promote fire numerous times and across diverse clades. Here we outline a conceptual framework of how plant traits determine the flammability of ecosystems and interact with climate and weather to influence fire regimes. We explore how these evolutionary and ecological processes scale to impact biogeochemical and Earth system processes. Finally, we outline several research challenges that, when resolved, will improve our understanding of the role of plant evolution in mediating the fire feedbacks driving Earth system processes. Understanding current patterns of fire and vegetation, as well as patterns of fire over geological time, requires research that incorporates evolutionary biology, ecology, biogeography, and the biogeosciences.

Published in Environmental Research Letters

ISSN: 1748-9326 (Online)
Publisher: IOP Publishing
Country of publisher: United Kingdom
LCC subjects: Technology: Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering; Geography. Anthropology. Recreation: Environmental sciences; Science: Physics
Website: https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/1748-9326

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