Jàmbá (Jul 2024)

Understanding fire regimes: A biogeographical perspective

  • Daniel S. Boshoff

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4102/jamba.v16i1.1673
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 16, no. 1
pp. e1 – e5

Abstract

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Fire regimes are often considered to be either driven by climate, fuel load or human activities. A significant proportion of fires across various ecosystems occur via large fire events. Recently, suggestions have been made that fires are becoming more severe and frequent as a consequence of current climate change. Although there are many factors influencing fire events, scientists have not found a suitable framework that can provide for understanding fires at the macroscale level. This review article proposes a new conceptual framework to better understand fire regimes. The proposed framework relies on a biogeographical perspective of fire regimes that include characteristics that have been underestimated in previous frameworks and to mitigate time as well as spatial scale issues at the macrolevel.

Keywords