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Encyclopedia of Wildfires and Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fires pp 1–17Cite as

Ignition Sources

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:

Synonyms

Fire causes; Fire ignition; Human ignitions; Natural ignitions; Wildfire ignitions

Definition

Any ignition of natural or human origin (direct or indirect) that can provoke a wildfire.

Introduction

Fires have been burning on earth largely since the origin of plants as the existence of fire depends on a combination of fuel, sufficient oxygen levels, and a heat source (Pausas and Keeley 2009). Natural heat sources to spark fires, primarily lightning, but also including other natural events, such as volcanoes or meteors, have existed through the history of the planet. Over time, the extent and frequency of fires have oscillated according to changes in climate and vegetation. Early in the Quaternary, high climate seasonality favored fire expansion in southern Europe as it did in many other ecosystems of the northern and southern hemispheres. Later, during the Neolithic Age, humans began affecting the fire regime by accidentally or deliberately setting and stopping fires and by...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. RECOVER-EMR, IRSTEA, Aix-en-Provence, France

    Anne Ganteaume

  2. Conservation Biology Institute, Corvallis, OR, USA

    Alexandra D. Syphard

Authors
  1. Anne Ganteaume
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  2. Alexandra D. Syphard
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anne Ganteaume .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. United States Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA

    Samuel L. Manzello

Section Editor information

  1. Land & Water, CSIRO, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Raphaele Blanchi PhD

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Ganteaume, A., Syphard, A.D. (2018). Ignition Sources. In: Manzello, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Wildfires and Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fires. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51727-8_43-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51727-8_43-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51727-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-51727-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EngineeringReference Module Computer Science and Engineering

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