PASTFIRE · Holocene history of fire along past land-use and climate gradients in Europe

Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.

Накратко на български

Цел на проекта

Fire is an important natural ecological process that partly controls ecosystem diversity and health. In Europe, human-induced fires have long been superimposed on natural fire regimes. Ancient Europeans used fire as a tool to clear landscapes for millennia, during which time the resultant gas emissions affected global climates.Today, fire is viewed as both friend and foe. On one hand, fire is an essential ecosystem process that is often used as a management tool to maintain ecosystem vigor and biodiversity. Yet, fires can also have devastating impacts: destroying infrastructure and claiming lives. The economic costs can be staggering. Fire regimes are regulated partly by climate, and climate is predicted to warm significantly in the near future. The response of fire to climatic change is not well known and yet the consequences to both natural systems and humans could be catastrophic, rendering immediate need for further fire research.We propose using a long-term palaeofire perspective to forecast the potential response of fire to future environmental change. By collecting lake sediment cores along both land-use and climate gradients and analysing them in a standard fashion using state-of-the-art landscape and fire reconstruction techniques, we will be able to reconstruct and directly compare the fire history between sites and biomes. Multi-proxy environmental indicators will be employed to help differentiate between human-induced and natural fires. Focusing on past warm dry intervals will yield insight into the potential response of fire to future warm conditions.Our results will be included in dynamic vegetation and biodiversity models to forecast future conditions, leading to management recommendations. The project will foster collaboration between the fellow and the host and will draw the European fire research community together through the implementation of a fire database.

Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).

Участници

• GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF DENMARK AND GREENLAND · COPENHAGENКоординаторДания

Връзки

• Виж в CORDIS