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Synthesis: Landscape Ecology and Changing Fire Regimes

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The Landscape Ecology of Fire

Part of the book series: Ecological Studies ((ECOLSTUD,volume 213))

Abstract

Fire is a ubiquitous ecosystem process, and one that is expected to respond rapidly and unpredictably in a changing climate. The effects of altered fire regimes will be felt in many if not most of Earth’s ecosystems (Gillett et al. 2004; Millar et al. 2007; Bowman et al. 2009; Parisien and Moritz 2009). Consequently, fire managers will be challenged to envision and enable landscapes of the future in which ecological function is maintained, and adaptation strategies will have to be creative and dynamic (Chap. 10). In this chapter we recap key lessons from the preceding contributions and comment on the state of the art in landscape fire theory, application, and management, with an eye toward specifying a research agenda for the landscape ecology of fire. Specifically, we explore the possibility that the energy-regulation-scale (ERS) framework (Chap. 1) could be applied to a wide variety of issues in fire ecology. We then present our (short list of) candidates for “key concepts” in the landscape ecology of fire.

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Correspondence to Donald McKenzie .

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McKenzie, D., Miller, C., Falk, D.A. (2011). Synthesis: Landscape Ecology and Changing Fire Regimes. In: McKenzie, D., Miller, C., Falk, D. (eds) The Landscape Ecology of Fire. Ecological Studies, vol 213. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0301-8_12

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