Fire on Earth: An Introduction

Earth is the only planet known to have fire.  The reason is both simple and profound: fire exists because Earth is the only planet to possess life as we know it. Fire is an expression of life on Earth and an index of life’s history. Few processes are as integral, unique, or ancient. Fire on Earth puts fire in its rightful place as an integral part of the study of geology, biology, human history, physics, and global chemistry. Fire is ubiquitous in various forms throughout Earth, and belongs as part of formal inquiries about our world. In recent years fire literature has multiplied exponentially; dedicated journals exist and half a dozen international conferences are held annually. A host of formal sciences, or programs announcing interdisciplinary intentions, are willing to consider fire. Wildfire also appears routinely in media reporting. This full-colour text, containing over 250 illustrations of fire in all contexts, is designed to provide a synthesis of contemporary thinking; bringing together the most powerful concepts and disciplinary voices to examine, in an international setting, why planetary fire exists, how it works, and why it looks the way it does today. Students, lecturers, researchers and professionals interested in the physical, ecological and historical characteristics of fire will find this book, and accompanying web-based material, essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in all related disciplines, for general interest and for providing an interdisciplinary foundation for further study. A comprehensive approach to the history, behaviour and ecological effects of fire on earth Timely introduction to this important subject, with relevance for global climate change, biodiversity loss and the evolution of human culture. Provides a foundation for the interdisciplinary field of Fire Research Authored by an international team of leading experts in the field Associated website provides additional resources

Table of Contents:
Preface xiii Acknowledgements xv About the Authors xvii About the Companion Website xix PART ONE FIRE IN THE EARTH SYSTEM 1 Preface to part one 2 Chapter 1 What is fire? 3 1.1 How fire starts and initially spreads 3 1.2 Lightning and other ignition sources 4 1.3 The charring process 6 1.4 Pyrolysis products 7 1.5 Fire types 10 1.6 Peat fires 14 1.7 Fire effects on soils 15 1.8 Post-fire erosion-deposition 18 1.9 Fire and vegetation 22 1.10 Fire and climate 26 1.11 Fire triangles 30 1.12 Fire return intervals 30 1.13 How we study fire: satellites 31 1.14 Modelling fire occurrence 38 1.15 Climate forcing 42 1.16 Scales of fire occurrence 44 Further reading 45 Chapter 2 Fire in the fossil record: recognition 47 2.1 Fire proxies: fire scars and charcoal 47 2.2 The problem of nomenclature: black carbon, char, charcoal, soot and elemental carbon 49 2.3 How we study charcoal: microscopical and chemical techniques 51 2.4 Charcoal as an information-rich source 56 2.5 Charcoal reflectance and temperature 56 2.6 Uses of charcoal 58 2.7 Fire intensity/severity 59 2.8 Deep time studies 60 2.9 Pre-requisite for fire: fuel – the evolution of plants 61 2.10 Charcoal in sedimentary systems 62 Further reading 63 Chapter 3 Fire in the fossil record: earth system processes 65 3.1 Fire and oxygen 65 3.2 Fire feedbacks 67 3.3 Systems diagrams 67 3.4 Charcoal as proxy for atmospheric oxygen 69 3.5 Burning experiments – fire spread 69 3.6 Fire and the terrestrial system 70 Further reading 72 Chapter 4 The geological history of fire in deep time: 420 million years to 2 million years ago 73 4.1 Periods of high and low fire, and implications 73 4.2 The first fires 73 4.3 The rise of fire 75 4.4 Fire in the high-oxygen Paleozoic world 77 4.5 Collapse of fire systems 80 4.6 Fire at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary 82 4.7 Jurassic variation 82 4.8 Cretaceous fires 84 4.9 Fire at the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-P or K-T) boundary 87 4.10 Paleocene fires 88 4.11 Fires across the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM) 88 4.12 Dampening of fire systems 89 4.13 Rise of the grass-fire cycle 89 Further reading 89 Chapter 5 The geological history of fire – the last two million years 91 5.1 Problems of Quaternary fire history 91 5.2 The Paleofire working group: techniques and analysis 93 5.3 Fire and climate cycles 97 5.4 Fire and humans: the fossil evidence 98 5.5 Fire and the industrial society 101 Further reading 101 References for part one 103 PART TWO BIOLOGY OF FIRE 111 Preface to part two 112 Chapter 6 Pyrogeography – temporal and spatial patterns of fire 113 6.1 Fire and life 113 6.2 Global climate, vegetation patterns and fire 113 6.3 Pyrogeography 116 6.4 Fire and the control of biome boundaries 121 6.5 The fire regime concept 125 6.6 Fire ecology 128 6.7 Conclusion 129 Further reading 129 Chapter 7 Plants and fire 131 7.1 Introduction 131 7.2 Fire and plant traits 131 7.3 Fire regimes and the characteristic suite of fire plant traits 137 7.4 Evolution of fire traits 140 7.5 Summary and implications 145 Further reading 145 General reading 146 Chapter 8 Fire and fauna 147 8.1 Direct effects of fire on fauna 147 8.2 The effect of fire regimes on fauna 148 8.3 The landscape mosaic and pyrodiversity 150 8.4 The effect of fauna on fire regimes 152 8.5 Fire and the evolution of fauna 154 8.6 Summary 155 Further reading 155 Chapter 9 Fire as an ecosystem process 157 9.1 Introduction 157 9.2 Fire and erosion 157 9.3 Fire and nutrient cycling 160 9.4 Fire and pedogenesis 163 9.5 Fire and atmospheric chemistry 164 9.6 Fire and climate 165 9.7 Summary 168 Further reading 169 Chapter 10 Fire and anthropogenic environmental change 171 10.1 Introduction 171 10.2 Prehistoric impacts 171 10.3 Prehistoric fire management 174 10.4 Contemporary fire management 176 10.5 Climate change 177 10.6 Fire and carbon management 180 10.7 Fire regime switches: a major challenge for fire ecology 180 10.8 Invasive plants and altered fire regimes 184 10.9 Conclusion 187 Further reading 187 References for part two 189 PART THREE ANTHROPOGENIC FIRE 193 Preface to part three 194 Chapter 11 Fire creature 195 11.1 Early hominins: spark of creation 195 11.2 Aboriginal fire: control over ignition 198 11.3 Cultivated fire: control over combustibles 206 11.4 Ideas and institutions: lore and ritual 220 11.5 Narrative arcs (and equants) 221 Further reading 229 Chapter 12 A new epoch of fire: the anthropocene 231 12.1 The Great Disruption 231 12.2 The pyric transition 232 12.3 Enlightenment and empire 236 12.4 Scaling the transition 238 12.5 After the revolution 245 Further reading 257 Chapter 13 Fire management 259 13.1 Introducing integrated fire management 259 13.2 Two realms: managing the pyric transition 260 13.3 Strategies 261 13.4 Institutions: ordering fire 272 13.5 Ideas: conceptions of fire 277 13.6 Fire management: selected examples 279 Further reading 289 References and further reading for part three 291 PART FOUR THE SCIENCE AND ART OF WILDLAND FIRE BEHAVIOUR PREDICTION 295 Preface to part four 296 Chapter 14 Fundamentals of wildland fire as a physical process 297 14.1 Introduction 297 14.2 The basics of combustion and heat transfer 298 14.3 The wildland fire environment concept 303 14.4 Characterization of wildland fire behaviour 315 14.5 Extreme wildland fire behaviour phenomena 329 14.6 Field methods of measuring and quantifying wildland fire behaviour 336 14.7 Towards increasing our understanding of wildland fire behaviour 337 Further reading 339 Chapter 15 Estimating free-burning wildland fire behaviour 341 15.1 Introduction 341 15.2 A historical sketch of wildland fire behaviour research 342 15.3 Models, systems and guides for predicting wildland fire behaviour 350 15.4 Limitations on the accuracy of model predictions of wildland fire behaviour 359 15.5 The wildland fire behaviour prediction process 363 15.6 Specialized support in assessing wildland fire behaviour 370 15.7 Looking ahead 371 Further reading 372 Chapter 16 Fire management applications of wildland fire behaviour knowledge 373 16.1 Introduction 373 16.2 Wildfire suppression 376 16.3 Wildland firefighter safety 378 16.4 Community wildland fire protection 382 16.5 Fuels management 383 16.6 Prediction of fire effects 388 16.7 Getting on the road towards self-improvement 389 Further reading 390 References for part four 393 Index 405

About the Author :
Andrew C. Scott is Professor of Applied Palaeobotany and a Distinguished Research Fellow in the Department of Earth Sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London, England David M.J.S.Bowman is Professor of Environmental Change Biology in the School of Plant Science at the University of Tasmania, Australia William J. Bond is Professor of Plant Ecology in the Department of Botany at the University of Cape Town, South Africa Stephen J. Pyne is Regent’s Professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA Martin E. Alexander is an Adjunct Professor of Wildland Fire Science and Management at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and formerly a senior fire behavior research officer with the Canadian Forest Service

Review :
“The well-organized and illustrated work can be used as a textbook or a reference source for practitioners.  Each chapter has a list of further readings, and each part has its own extensive bibliography.  This phenomenal contribution will become a classic reference for five mangers, students of fire ecology and climate, and researchers for years to come.  Summing Up: Essential.  All levels/libraries.”   (Choice, 1 October 2014) “Overall, the book provides an excellent, multidisciplinary introduction to fire, authored by leading experts in their fields, written in a very accessible style and supported by superb illustrations and extensive references. Hence, I highly recommend it to potential readers, who may be upper level undergraduate students, graduate students, teaching staff and everyone working, or simply interested, in the area of environmental science.”  (International Journal of Wildland Fire, 1 August 2014) “Fire and earth scientists, anthropologists, ecol­ogists, resource managers, and especially ad­vanced students in natural sciences will find the text, along with its online resources, a req­uisite addition to their libraries. Not only is it a pleasure to read, simply put, it sparks the imagination.”  (Fire Ecology, 1 June 2014) “With wildfire recognised in key government contingency documents, not least for climate change, foresters looking for greater understanding of this future challenge over the coming decades, should look no further.”  (Chartered Forester, 1 May 2014) “This book is a good example of a multidisciplinary investigation.  The writers express the wish that it may stimulate further research into fire processes, both ‘natural’ and induced by humanity. A book worth reading!.”  (Geological Journal, 29 April 2014)