Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
and social drivers at different temporal and spatial scales has been proposed (O'Connor
et al.2011, Bowman et al.2013). Some fire-prone landscapes that have been created and main-
tained by humans are much valued for cultural and aesthetic reasons, regardless of any claims
to longevity or naturalness (see Chapters 6 and 7). For example, in Tasmania, pollen and char-
coal evidence suggests that human arrival around 35,000 years ago was associated with
increased burning and the transition from rainforest to open moorland, which can be consid-
ered an 'an ancient cultural landscape' (Fletcher and Thomas 2010). Many moorlands and
heathlands in North America and Europe are also anthropogenically derived (Foster 2002,
Motzkin and Foster 2002, Holden et al. 2007, Wu 2011, Barthel et al. 2013). Such landscapes are
much valued for their cultural, heritage and aesthetic qualities and many culturally managed
landscapes are considered valid conservation targets (see Chapters 6 and 7) (Jacques 1995, Wu
2011, 2013).
Fire-prone landscapes are complex socioecological systems where humans shape fire
regimes through changes in fuel availability, ignitions, and timing of burns (Archibald et al.
2009, Duvall 2011, Coughlan and Petty 2012, Laris 2013, Pausas and Keeley 2014). Such inter-
ventions play out across the biophysical template, and have the potential to conserve bio-
diversity and landscape heterogeneity, safeguard ecosystem services, and ameliorate the
impacts of climate change, yet the socioecological aspects of fire regimes are under-explored
(Whitlock et al. 2010, Duvall 2011, Coughlan and Petty 2012, Laris 2013). Some cultures have
retained fire management techniques that benefit biodiversity and sustain livelihoods, but in
other areas these traditions have been lost, and landscapes are changing as a result (Bowman
et al. 2011, Shakesby 2011, Pausas and Keeley 2014). Studying traditional fire management
methods can provide models for modern fire management that both protects biodiversity
and sustains a wide range of ecosystem services.
In Africa, Australia, and North America, European settlement disrupted fire management
traditions and impacted on fuel loads, ignitions, and spatial patterns of burning (Pausas and
Keeley 2014). Patch mosaic burning is a common theme in the traditional management of
many savannas, grasslands, and open woodlands (Parr and Andersen 2006, Allen 2008).
Each year, the driest vegetation is gradually burnt of, creating a seasonal mosaic of habitat
patches of different ages (Figure 4.6a), which enhance dry season land uses, including hunt-
ing, gathering of savanna products, and grazing. Laris (2002) studied seasonal mosaic burn-
ing in the savannas of southern Mali, where people annually recreate a mosaic of unburned,
early burned, and recently burned vegetation (Figure 4.6b). A survey of over 100 farmers and
in-depth interviews demonstrated that rural inhabitants begin an annual burning regime
early in the dry season in order to fragment the landscape, with the goal of preventing later
fires that can damage natural resources. Other reasons for burning included protecting crops,
villages, trees and orchards, preparing fields, facilitating hunting, path clearance, and pest
control (Laris 2002, 2013). Satellite images confirmed that, where early season patch mosaic
Search WWH ::
Custom Search