Constraints on global fire activity vary across a resource gradient
Abstract
We provide an empirical, global test of the varying constraints hypothesis, which predicts systematic heterogeneity in the relative importance of biomass resources to burn and atmospheric conditions suitable to burning (weather/climate) across a spatial gradient of long-term resource availability. Analyses were based on relationships between monthly global wildfire activity, soil moisture, and mid-tropospheric circulation data from 2001 to 2007, synthesized across a gradient of long-term averages in resources (net primary productivity), annual temperature, and terrestrial biome. We demonstrate support for the varying constraints hypothesis, showing that, while key biophysical factors must coincide for wildfires to occur, the relative influence of resources to burn and moisture/weather conditions on fire activity shows predictable spatial patterns. In areas where resources are always available for burning during the fire season, such as subtropical/tropical biomes with mid-high annual long-term net primary productivity, fuel moisture conditions exert their strongest constraint on fire activity. In areas where resources are more limiting or variable, such as deserts, xeric shrublands, or grasslands/savannas, fuel moisture has a diminished constraint on wildfire, and metrics indicating availability of burnable fuels produced during the antecedent wet growing seasons reflect a more pronounced constraint on wildfire. This macro-scaled evidence for spatially varying constraints provides a synthesis with studies performed at local and regional scales, enhances our understanding of fire as a global process, and indicates how sensitivity to future changes in temperature and precipitation may differ across the world.
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Paleoecological records and landscape-scale data show that fire frequency has continually responded to climate change, with periods of intense drought featuring more fires and higher severity fires.
“Paleoecological records and landscape-scale data have shown that fire frequency has continually responded to climate change, with periods of intense drought featuring more fires and higher severity fires.20,21”
From Wildfire and the Future of Water Supply (2014) · cites this paper as [20]
The use of GFLD and PCM projections can be thought as contrasted future climatic bookends.
“The use of GFLD and PCM projections can be thought as contrasted future climatic bookends [9,46,54].”
From Incorporating Anthropogenic Influences into Fire Probability Models: Effects of Human Activity and Climate Change on Fire Activity in California (2016) · cites this paper as [46]
Fuel and weather show opposite trends along a productivity gradient: low-productivity environments usually do not produce enough fuel, whereas in high-biomass environments the fuel is usually too wet to burn.
“Fuel and weather show opposite trends along a productivity gradient: low-productivity environments usually do not produce enough fuel, whereas in high-biomass environments the fuel is usually too wet to burn.”
From Defining pyromes and global syndromes of fire regimes (2013) · cites this paper as [12]
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- Authors
- Krawchuk, M. A., & Moritz, M. A.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
- Corresponding author
- Krawchuk, Meg A.
- Venue
- Ecology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2011-01
- Volume
- 92
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 121-132
- ISSN
- 0012-9658 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2046627099
- Cited by
- 472
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 30 · 2025: 35 · 2024: 32 · 2023: 32 · 2022: 47 · 2021: 38 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 30 · 2018: 34 · 2017: 29 · 2016: 29 · 2015: 28 · 2014: 33 · 2013: 27 · 2012: 16
- FWCI
- 13.52
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Ecology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Fire effects on ecosystems
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Rangeland and Wildlife Management
- Keywords
- wildfire activity, fuel moisture content, net primary productivity, soil moisture, terrestrial biomes, climate and fire, desert shrubland, savanna, grassland
- MeSH terms
- Climate, Fires, Geography, Models, Theoretical, Soil, Water, Biomarkers, Ecosystem
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