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burning
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G
Austronesian
Less Europe colonizations
40
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30
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O2
ph
20
os
(%)
10
tm
A
440
30 400
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CO2 20
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r
CO2
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ity
modern 10 cycles period
th
(ppm) 320
al
C
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on
SO
0
w
280
as
re
EN
Se
Fi
240
200
Anthropogenic invasive spp.
n
io
C4 Grasslands
Angiosperms
at
et
Trees
g
Ve
Terrestrial plants
Satellite fire monitoring
Mechanized fire fighting
s
Industrial fire
an
Agricultural fire
um
Foraging fire
H
Domestic fire
Bipedalism
1 bya 100 mya 10 mya 1 mya 100 kya 10 kya 1 kya 100 ya 10 ya 1 ya Months Days Near Distant
future future
Fig. 1. Qualitative schematic of global fire activity through time, based on atmospheric O2 content, parts per million (ppm) of CO2, appearance of certain
pre-Quaternary distribution of charcoal, Quaternary and Holocene charcoal vegetation types, and the presence of the genus Homo. (See supporting online
records, and modern satellite observations, in relation to the percentage of text for data sources used.) Dotted lines indicate periods of uncertainty.
ment raises the unsettled issue of whether hu- distribution, and thus the risk of fire. Indeed, a in the southern United States and Patagonia, Ar-
mans or climate are more important in determin- notable feature of fire’s distribution is the broad gentina (25, 33), whereas a marked increase in
ing fire patterns. correlation between vegetation formations and fire activity occurs in tropical rainforests dur-
fire regimes (28). Furthermore, fire can sometimes ing El Niño phases (34). Sedimentary charcoal
Distribution and Diversity of Fire explain the presence of alternate ecosystem states records also show a strong link between climate
Earth is an intrinsically flammable planet owing within the same climatic zone (28). and fire activity, with reduced fire in cold intervals
to its cover of carbon-rich vegetation, season- Vegetation transitions can occur when fire and increased fire in warm intervals, regardless
ally dry climates, atmospheric oxygen, and wide- regimes are altered substantially beyond histor- of whether humans were present (35). However,
spread lightning and volcano ignitions. Yet, ical norms, owing to changes in ignition sources charcoal records do show a reduction in fire
despite the human species’ long-held apprecia- or fuel mass, and variations in structure caused after ~1870 C.E. in most regions, apparently in
tion of this flammability, the global scope of fire by fire protection, grazing, or the spread of in- response to agricultural intensification and intro-
has been revealed only recently by satellite ob- vasive plants. For example, nonflammable trop- duced animal grazing (36).
servations available beginning in the 1980s (24) ical rainforests, evergreen woodlands, and arid Abrupt changes in fire activity during island
(Fig. 2). This record shows a strong association shrublands can abruptly convert to highly flam- colonization offer insight into human influence
between high fire activity and areas of interme- mable plant communities with increasing anthro- on fire, beyond background climate conditions.
diate primary production, particularly in tropical pogenic ignitions and fine fuels from invasive For example, the colonization of the southern
savannas (25). However, the satellite record grasses (29). Fire protection, by contrast, pro- island of New Zealand by the Maori about 700
does not adequately capture fire activity in eco- motes dense regrowth and closed woodlands. In to 800 years ago was characterized by wide-
systems that have long (>100-year) fire intervals, the southwestern United States, this has led to spread destruction of forests by burning, causing
nor in cases in which fire behavior is highly an associated switch from surface to crown fires the loss of half of the island’s temperate rain-
variable. Satellite products that provide those (30). Human landscape management is impli- forests (37). Likewise, it has been argued that
data on area burned, fire intensity, and complete- cated in these fire regime transitions, yet under- fire usage during the late Pleistocene colonization
ness of combustion are still being developed (26). lying climate patterns also alter fire behavior. of Australia triggered a series of megafaunal ex-
Fires burn with different intensities and fre- tinctions and vegetation changes (38).
quencies, resulting in a wide variety of ecolog- Climate and Human Drivers of Fire
ical effects. To capture this diversity, ecologists Analyses of historical meteorological data and Fire, Carbon, and Climate
define the “fire regime” on the basis of a range national fire records show the primacy of cli- Humans and climate both play a role in deter-
of variables including fuel type (ground, surface, mate in driving large regional fires, e.g., via mining fire patterns and, in turn, fire influences
and crown), temporal nature (rate of spread, antecedent wet periods that create substantial the climate system via the release of carbon. Fires
seasonality, and frequency), spatial pattern (size herbaceous fuels or drought and warming that accelerate the natural cycle of primary produc-
and patchiness), and consequences (impacts on extend conducive fire weather (1). Additionally, tion and respiration. In a world without fire, more
vegetation and soils) (27). The association of dendrochronological and observational analyses carbon would be stored in woody vegetation
plant species having distinct reproductive and show tight coupling between high fire activity (39). If climate and fire regimes equilibrate,
survival strategies with different fire regimes sug- and interannual- and decadal-scale climate os- then fire-induced atmospheric CO2 emissions
gests that fire is a potent biological filter (table cillations (31, 32). For example, fire occurrence are balanced by uptake from surviving vegeta-
S1) influencing biomass production, vegetation increases during the La Niña phase of the ENSO tion or via regeneration. The individual contribu-
NPP
g C m-2 year-1
˜0
1 – 300
301 – 600
601 – 1200
1201 – 1553
˜0
1–4
5 – 19
20 – 49
50 – 99
100 – 199
200 – 499
> 500
Fig. 2. Current pyrogeography on Earth, illustrated by (A) net primary productivity (NPP, g C m−2 year−1) (40) from 2001 to 2006, by 1° grid cells;
and (B) annual average number of fires observed by satellite (49).