Managing our Forests: Wildfire Effects on Ecological Functions, Patterns and Processes
Managing our Forests: Wildfire Effects on Ecological Functions, Patterns and Processes
Special Session in the Frame of the 41st Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of Germany, Austria and Switzerland
5 – 9 September 2011, Oldenburg, Germany
From a global perspective, fire is one of the major terrestrial disturbance agents after human urban and agricultural activities. Fire is a vital and natural part of many ecosystems from arctic tundra and boreal forests to seasonally dry tropical forests and savannas. Fire influences the carbon cycle, atmospheric chemistry and aerosols. Apart from fire-induced atmospheric CO2-emissions, release of atmospheric aerosols and changing surface albedo play an important role. Therefore it has been stressed recently that future Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessments of anthropogenic global climate change should contain specific analyses of the role fire plays in climate change. The effects of wildfires on ecosystem functioning are manifold. Wildfire affects plant and animal diversity by influencing plant species composition, forest stand and age structure, and distribution, size and shape of vegetation patches on the landscape. Fire triggers and affects ecological or ecologically relevant processes such as vegetation regeneration, growth and mortality, decomposition, nutrient fluxes, hydrology and wildlife activity. Regionally, changes in fire regimes have the potential to exceed the effects of changes in temperature or precipitation on species distribution and migration. The goal of this session is to highlight the effects of wildfires on ecological functions, patterns and processes on various temporal and spatial scales and in various regions of the world.
“Wildfire effects on ecological functions, patterns and processes” is one of several themes at the 41st Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of Germany, Austria and Switzerland (GFÖ).
Call for abstracts:
Abstracts (oral or poster) can be submitted via the official hompage until 15 May 2011:
http://www.gfoe-2011.de
http://www.gfoe-2011.de/index.php?cat=callforpapers
Conveners / Chairs:
Andrea Meyn and Kirsten Thonicke
Contact: Andrea.Meyn@pik-potsdam.de
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