Advances in understanding and managing wildland fire: communicating wildland fire research to land-management practitioners

Abstract

The health and function of forest ecosystems throughout the worldinclude periodic exposure to disturbances such as fire. Fire has beeninstrumental in the evolution of large segments of flora and fauna andin preventing fuel accumulations that resulted in extreme fire behaviourand ecosystem degradation. However, wildland fuels have beenaccumulating over several of the past decades because ofsuppression-orientated wildland fire policies, silvicultural and grazingpractices, invasions of invasive species, increased density and range offlammable indigenous plants, landscape fragmentation, and relatednatural and anthropogenic causes. The additional fuels have contributedto increased severe fire behaviour, fire intensity, forest mortality,and post-fire soil damage and erosion. The aftermath of severe wildlandfires include ecosystems degraded by extreme fire temperatures andduration, reductions in ecosystem function, altered forest structure,altered natural fire regimes, and increased wildfire risk and imminentthreats to life and property from uncontrollable fires. We review 10years of advances in fire science in the eight papers presented in thisSpecial Issue. The studies and reviews are compiled to present thediverse disciplines of fire science that range from the social scienceof the public's perception of fire to basic research on the theory offire spread.