Dr Tadas Nikonovas

GEG337 Wildfires

Wildfires are a natural phenomenon in the Earth System that has shaped the landscapes and ecology of a wide range of Earth¿s biomes for many millions of years. They currently burn 3¿5 million km2 of the Earth¿s surface annually (around 12-20 x the size of the UK). Wildfires (i.e. uncontrolled fires) and managed vegetation fires emit around 8 billion tonnes of CO2 to the atmosphere on average each year, with some of these emissions contributing to climate change, but most of them being sequestered again during vegetation recovery. Many fires are an essential driver of maintaining ecosystems whether ignited naturally by lightning or humans as land management tool, and do not present an immediate risk to society or the environment. However, some fires lead to loss of life or infrastructures and can also threaten ecosystems that are not adapted to fire or in which fire regimes are altered by human influence. Fire impacts on society extend beyond direct destruction, such as accelerated soil erosion and water contamination, or exposure to smoke contributing to over 300,000 premature deaths per year. Major fire outbreaks in recent years have received extensive media attention and fuelled concern that climate change is increasing fire activity, threatening human livelihood, destroying ecosystems and accelerating climate change. These conflicting roles of fire pose a huge challenge: how do we balance the natural role of vegetation fires on Earth with the need to protect life and infrastructure? This module will provide an multifaceted overview of vegetation fires and its role in maintaining ecosystems, how fire is ignited, how climate change, land management, weather and fuel types interact to determine the nature and behaviour of fire, how fire directly and indirectly impacts the natural environment and societies, how the media and societies perceive fire, and how we can manage and co-exist with fire in our changing world. Given the multidisciplinary nature of fire science, ranging from physical principles to ecology and socio-economic and political dimensions, no textbook exists that covers all these comprehensively. The module thus will use a few textbooks, but also requires engaging critically with the latest scientific literature. It particularly suited to students who focus on physical geography, but it also offers insights and skills relevant to cultural, social and economic geography, and other disciplines.