Vegetation provides the fuel for wildfires, and both the amount and type of vegetation exert a strong control on wildfire occurrence and intensity. However, wildfires are the most common cause of vegetation disturbance and destruction. Many ecosystems are adapted to frequent fires and indeed require frequent fires for their maintenance; others are intolerant of fire. Wildfires are predicted to increase in response to future climate changes; how these changes will influence the two-way interactions between wildfire and vegetation is still largely unknown. The major goal of this project is to investigate how specific vegetation traits influence wildfire regimes at a global scale and how in turn wildfires influence the expression of these traits. The project will draw on the increasing wealth of data available from field studies, experiments, and remote-sensing to examine which vegetation properties are most influential in determining the nature of wildfires in order to develop a predictive global model of vegetation-wildfire interactions.
