Fire Ecology of Tropical Ecosystems gives an extensive explanation of
historic and current fire situations in the tropics, describing the fire
ecology of tropical ecosystems from around the globe. Eighteen groups of
leading researchers explain the many different aspects and roles of fire
in tropical ecosystems. Regional chapters address a set of common
subjects including the causes of fire, typical fire behavior, and
elements of the fire regime. In addition, they study the impacts of
human land use, landscape fragmentation and climate change on the fire
environment and the challenges of fire management in these ecosystems.
The common set of topics provides consistency among the chapters and
facilitates comprehensive understanding of fire's place in tropical
ecology. This cohesive book covers unique aspects of fire in each
ecosystem and includes a discussion of common elements to enable
comparisons and syntheses of fire effects in disparate tropical
ecosystems. Current scientific literature is too fragmented: it hampers
the understanding of tropical fire ecology and degrades all global
studies of land cover change and global carbon emissions. Fire
Ecology of Tropical Ecosystems fills a large void in our current
understanding of how fire affects terrestrial biota.
The book opens with a general explanation of fire in the tropics, giving
the examples of Oazaca, Mexico in 1998 and Roraima, Brazil in 1997-1998.
It follows with the concepts and principles of wildland fire, including
heat transfer, fire behavior, fuels, weather and climate.
Chapters 3-19 cover the implications of fire in Asia, Africa, Australia,
Central and South America, Pacifica and Pantropical, addressing the
causes, fire behavior, severity, fire and land use, fire and landscapes
(fragmentation and connectivity), fire, climate and climate change, fire
regimes (why frequency matters), issues for fire management and regional
issues of specific importance or interest. An overview at the end of the
book considers the global fire regime conditions, threats, and
opportunities for fire management in the tropics.
