Fire in Ecosystems of Boreal Eurasia: Ecological Impacts and Links to the Global System

Abstract

The volume is the first monograph published in English in which the accumulated state of windland fire science in the boreal forest zone of Eurasia is systematically analyzed. The volume is mainly based on research achievements from the former Soviet Union and on ongoing programs of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Selected contributions from fire ecology, remote sensing and atmospheric chemistry from boreal Fennoscandia and North America provide the latest state of research and the link to the global importance of fire in the boreal zone. In the context of global change research, boreal fire science is receiving increasing attention, eg related to prehistoric, historic and modern influences of fire on vegetation dynamics, the role of fire on the atmosphere, biogeochemical cycles and on climate (carbon cycle, chemistry of the free troposphere and stratosphere, eg tropospheric ozone increase, stratospheric ozone depletion).