 FIREMAN: Fire management to maintain biodiversity and mitigate
economic loss
Coordinator: Dr. Richard Bradshaw
Link to Presentation
Fire is a natural disturbance agency of many forest and grassland ecosystems  that contributes to species dynamics and diversity, physical structure and ecosystem function. Many European heathland systems owe their origin and maintenance to burning, and fire is a key disturbance agency in both Mediterranean and boreal biomes that impacts the biodiversity of ecosystems, species and genetic structure. Fire-ecosystem relationships are altered by changing climate and earlier European fire regimes are now heavily modified by human activities to generate both biological and socio-economic problems. Intense or inappropriate fire can wreak enormous damage and following recent extreme fire years in parts of Europe, there is an urgent need for a co-ordinated European policy on fire management. The main aim of FIREMAN is to generate policy guidance and management tools for the appropriate use of fire to foster bio-diversity in three major European ecosystems.
FIREMAN will focus on fire-biodiversity-society relationships in
(i) boreal forests,
(ii) wet upland heathlands/moorlands and
(iii) Mediterranean shrub-forest systems.
Boreal forests have a history of natural fires, fire suppression and prescribed burning. Europe is characterised by a range of potentially conflicting fire policies and regimes as wildfire is dangerous, yet managed burning can be a valuable management tool that fosters biodiversity. We adopt a novel approach to addressing this potential paradox by combining long-term analyses of ‘baseline’ fire regimes, prior to recent human intervention, with vegetation-fire risk modelling to generate a scientific basis for management. Data will be explored and integrated by dynamic modelling of fire-vegetation relationships and placed in the context of a socio-economic framework. Our working hypothesis is that ‘baseline’ fire regimes in the three vegetation types vary with climatic change but maximum‘authentic’ (non-alien) species diversity is associated with ‘intermediate’ fire regimes (in terms of frequency and intensity). The use of the long-term historical perspective to generate appropriate management goals is novel and particularly relevant in Europe where there is a long history of human interaction with fire and biodiversity.
Benefits of fire in study systems
Fire has long been a natural process in most boreal forest regions so the biodiversity component and forest properties least affected by cultural activities are adapted to periodic fire and become threatened when fires are artificially suppressed. Several insect and plant species are fire-adapted and burning has important effects on soil conditions. Appropriate fire regimes, determined by studies of the past combined with modelling future conditions, should favour authentic biodiversity in the boreal region.
Most European heathlands owe their origin to anthropogenic burning and are grazing management and some areas are several thousand years of age. Maintenance of the biodiversity values in this habitat requires continued management of fire that can be usefully informed by studies of the past.
Heathlands are important conservation habitats in several western European countries. Wet heathlands merge into peatlands and moorlands in upland regions where fire is often used today to manage the food supply of game birds such as grouse.
High intensity wildfire is a severe threat to property and biodiversity in the Mediterranean region. However significant components of the bio-diversity are adapted to a moderate fire and browsing regime, so the current build-up of fuel and development of woody successions is changing the fauna and flora. Research on past and future conditions, in collaboration with stakeholders, is needed to develop appropriate fire regimes that will reduce the risk of severe, uncontrolled damage and favour biodiversity with a long history.
Desired project outcomes
The main aim of FIREMAN is to generate policy guidance and management tools for the appropriate use of fire to foster biodiversity in three major European ecosystems. Anticipated major outcomes will be characterised ‘base-line’ fire regimes, local and regional models of fire-biodiversity-climate relationships that are used to explore likely future scenarios and assessments of reactions of local communities to fire and biodiversity management. These tools will be developed in close conjunction with local managers and be used to impact policy to favour bio-diversity. FIREMAN will help with the European target of halting biodiversity loss by 2010.
Selected specific outcomes:-
• State-of-the-art knowledge of fire history in study regions
• Long-term data on fire-biodiversity relationships
• Understanding of the past incorporated into management strategies
• Tested model for study of regional fire-diversity relations parameterised for study regions
• Decision support system for moorland management
• Future scenarios explored in depth to inform and modify land-use and fire
• Management policies to favour biodiversity
• Constructive exchanges with practitioners in the areas where research outcomes are to be implemented
Photo: High Intensity controlled burn in Sweden (Mats Nicklasson)
|
