Fire in the forest / Peter A. Thomas and Rob McAlpine ; with contributions from Kelvin Hirsch and Peter Hobson.
Thomas, Peter, 1957-; McAlpine, Rob.
2010
SD421 .T49 2010 (Mapit)
Available at General Collection

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Title Fire in the forest / Peter A. Thomas and Rob McAlpine ; with contributions from Kelvin Hirsch and Peter Hobson.
Author Thomas, Peter, 1957-
ISBN 9780521822299
0521822297
Imprint New York : Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Language English
Description viii, 225 p. : ill. (some col.), col. maps ; 29 cm
Call Number SD421 .T49 2010
Dewey Decimal Classification 634.9/618
Summary "How destructive or beneficial are forest fires to wildlife? Should we be trying to reduce or increase the amount of fire in forests? How are forest fires controlled, and why does this sometimes fail? What effect will climate change have? These and many other questions are answered in this richly illustrated book, written in non-technical language. The journey starts in the long geological history of fire leading up to our present love-hate relationship with it. Exploring the physics of how a single flame burns, the journey continues through how whole forests burn and the anatomy of firestorms. The positive and negative ecological effects of fires are explored, from plants and wildlife to whole landscapes. The journey ends with how fires are controlled, and a look to the future. This book will be of interest to ecologists, biogeographers and anyone with an interest in forest fires and the role they play"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography, etc. Note Includes bibliographical references and index.
Added Author McAlpine, Rob.
Linked Resources Cover image
Record Appears in On-Campus Resources > Books
All Resources
1. In the beginning ... The nature of fire
Just how widespread are forest fires?
2. Historical review
The earliest beginnings of fire in geological time
Tertiary and quaternary: the last 65 million years
Holocene: the last 10,000 years
The intervention of humans
Uses of fire
Control of fire: careful or careless?
Effect of aboriginal people on the landscape
Arrival of the Europeans
Bambi and Smokey Bear
Reduced fire frequencies
Fire control to fire management
Are fire frequencies increasing again?


3. How a fire burns
Mechanics of fire
Pre-ignition
Ignition
Combustion
Heat transfer
Variation in fuel quality
Temperature and energy
Anatomy of a fire
Types of fire
Dynamics of extreme fires
Scales of fire impact: smoke


4. Fire in the wild landscape
Causes of wildfire: how do they start?
Which starts most fires?
Which burns most area?
The fire behavior triangle
Fuel considerations: fires are what they consume
The effect of climate and weather
Fire season
Variability in how a fire spreads
The complexity of fire spread
Patterns / mosaics on the landscape
Patterns of fire over time
Reconstructing fire history
Fire size: how big is big?


5. Fire ecology
How plants survive a surface fire
Fire stimulation of flowering
Ground fires and plant survival
How plants cope with a crown fire
Sneaking past: invasion after a fire
Bacteria and fungi
Animals and fire
Post-fire recovery of plants and animals


6. The benefits of fire and its use as a landscape tool / with Peter Hobson
Fire and biodiversity: an overview
Unpicking the factors that affect biodiversity
Environmental legacies: dead wood and biodiversity
Fire, forests and conservation
Can clear-cutting replace fire?
The future for fire-prone forests: environmental uncertainty, macroecology and ecosystem resilience
Fire as a management tool in the landscape
Fire and soils
The wildland-urban interface (WUI)
The role of prescribed burning in wildland-urban interface areas


7. Fire suppression
Preliminary steps: fire intelligence
Fire detection
Dispatch
Resources for fire suppression
Suppression
Suppression failure: large fire management
Fatality fires
The fire-management organisation


8. Wildland fire and its management - a look towards the future / Kelvin Kirsch
The age of uncertainty
Trends and supertrends
Adaptation
Innovation
The future: ours for the making.

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