Ecology of Wildfire Residuals in Boreal Forests

Ecology of Wildfire Residuals in Boreal Forests
ISBN-10
1118870581
ISBN-13
9781118870587
Category
Science
Pages
272
Language
English
Published
2014-07-21
Publisher
John Wiley & Sons
Authors
Ajith Perera, Lisa Buse

Description

This book will draw attention to the residuals in pan-borealforest fires and synthesize the state of knowledge. It willdo so by: (a) Examining the concept of fire residuals fromdifferent perspectives, (b) Reviewing the growing body ofscientific literature on the topic, (c) Conceptualizing theprocess of residual formation in relation to scale of firedisturbance, (d) Discussing the roles of fire residuals inecological processes, (e) Describing approaches and methods ofstudying fire residuals, (f) Compiling and summarizing what isknown about fire residual vegetation with respect to their extent,spatial patterns, and temporal changes, (g) Discussing howthe knowledge of fire residuals is applied in forest management,including social perspective, and (h) Synthesizing the state ofknowledge, identifying its uncertainties and gaps, and proposingresearch hypotheses. The authors use pan-borealscientific literature on boreal fire residuals as well as firebehaviour, fire ecology, habitat ecology, and geochemicalprocesses. For readers this book will be a reference forknowledge to date and a meta-analysis of research trends during thepast few decades. In addition, the authors judiciouslyinclude views constructed from their observations and researchexperience, from boreal Canada, when they synthesize andconceptualize the knowledge. They also incorporateinformation extracted from their discussions and interactions withNorth American and European ecologists, forest managers, andconservationists to provide insight to different views andperspectives on the fire residuals of the boreal forest system. This book will inform researchers and students who studyboreal forest ecology, as well as policymakers and forest managerswho apply forest ecological knowledge in forest management. This book provides a review and coalescence of the currentknowledge of boreal forest fire residuals, which at present issporadic and has not been unified or synthesized. Moreover,these are presently viewed myopically and parochially, rather thanholistically. The intent of the synthesis is to identifyknowledge uncertainties and gaps and propose topics for futureresearch. Most importantly, it brings together fire behaviour,ecological scale, vegetation ecology, and conservation biology toconceptualize forest fire residuals. Although focused onboreal forests, the contents and principles presented are also bepertinent to other large-scale fire driven forest systems, such asdry montane forests in North America and Australian eucalyptforests. This book will add to the current knowledge base byproviding a source of significant literature to-date, an in-depthexamination of baseline concepts of forest fire residuals, as wellas questions and research ideas to address the identified gaps. Thetiming is ideal because the knowledge base is beginning to expandand the interest in the topic is increasing: such a synthesis wouldprovide an important foundation for future advances in this veryrelevant topical area. The book is a compact, yet comprehensive,dissertation of remnant vegetation in boreal forest fires withrespect to their formation, role in ecological processes, appliedimportance, and a synthesis of state-of-the-knowledge and futureresearch directions. The scope is boreal forests worldwide,including North America, Europe, and Asia. Brief TOC: Why theinterest in boreal fire residuals; what are fire residuals; how arefire residuals formed; what are the ecological roles of the fireresiduals; what is the role of residuals in forest managementapplications; synthesis, knowledge, uncertainties and researchneeds.

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