Belcher Fire Phenomena and the Earth System

An Interdisciplinary Guide to Fire Science
1. Auflage 2013
ISBN: 978-1-118-52956-0
Verlag: John Wiley & Sons
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 352 Seiten, E-Book

Fire plays a key role in Earth system processes. Wildfiresinfluence the carbon cycle and the nutrient balance of our planet,and may even play a role in regulating the oxygen content of ouratmosphere. The evolutionary history of plants has been intimatelytied to fire and this in part explains the distribution of ourecosystems and their ability to withstand the effects of naturalfires today.
Fire Phenomena and the Earth System brings together thevarious subdisciplines within fire science to provide a synthesisof our understanding of the role of wildfire in the Earth system.The book shows how knowledge of fire phenomena and the nature ofcombustion of natural fuels can be used to understand modernwildfires, interpret fire events in the geological record and tounderstand the role of fire in a variety of Earth system processes.By bringing together chapters written by leading internationalresearchers from a range of geological, environmental, chemical andengineering disciplines, the book will stimulate the exchange ofideas and knowledge across these subject areas. Fire Phenomenaand the Earth System provides a truly interdisciplinary guidethat can inform us about Earth's past, present andbeyond.
Readership: Advanced students and researchers across awide range of earth, environmental and life sciences, includingbiogeochemistry, paleoclimatology, atmospheric science,palaeontology and paleoecology, combustion science, ecology andforestry.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Belcher, Claire M.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contributors, vii
Foreword, ix
Preface, xii
Acknowledgements, xv
PART 1 FIRE BEHAVIOUR, 1
1 An Introduction to Combustion in Organic Materials, 3
Jose L. Torero
2 Smouldering Fires and Natural Fuels, 15
Guillermo Rein
3 Experimental Understanding of Wildland Fires, 35
Albert Simeoni
4 Wildfire Behaviour and Danger Ratings, 53
Eulalia Planas and Elsa Pastor
5 Satellite Remote Sensing of Fires, 77
David P. Roy, Luigi Boschetti and Alistair M.S. Smith
PART 2 FIRE AND THE BIOSPHERE, 95
6 Understanding Fire Regimes and the Ecological Effects of Fire,97
G. Matt Davies
7 Plant Adaptations to Fire: an Evolutionary Perspective,125
Jeremy J. Midgley and William J. Bond
8 Fire and the Land Surface, 135
Stefan H. Doerr and Richard A. Shakesby
9 Identification of Black Carbon in the Earth System, 157
Karen Hammes and Samuel Abiven
PART 3 FIRE AND THE EARTH'S PAST, 177
10 Identifying Past Fire Events, 179
Ian J. Glasspool and Andrew C. Scott
11 A 21 000-Year History of Fire, 207
Mitchell J. Power
12 A 450-Million-Year History of Fire, 229
Claire M. Belcher, Margaret E. Collinson and Andrew C.Scott
PART 4 FIRE AND THE EARTH SYSTEM, 251
13 Evaluating the Atmospheric Impact of Wildfires, 253
Solene Turquety
14 The Dependence of Flame Spread and Probability of Ignition onAtmospheric Oxygen: an Experimental Investigation, 273
Andrew J. Watson and James E. Lovelock
15 Fire Feedbacks on Atmospheric Oxygen, 289
Timothy M. Lenton
16 Biochar and Carbon Sequestration, 309
Ondøej MaSek
Index, 323
Colour plate section 1 falls between pages 16 and 17
Colour plate section 2 falls between pages 192 and 193

Über Autor(innen)

Claire M. Belcher is Senior Lecturer in Earth SystemScience at the University of Exeter. Prior to this she held aunique joint position as a Marie Curie Fellow at the School ofGeosciences and BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering at theUniversity of Edinburgh. Her research is internationally recognisedfor integrating state-of-the-art modern experimental methods intostudies of Earth's ancient past. She is not only seen as aleader in her field but also as an innovator and facilitator ofinterdisciplinary research within fire science, an approach whichis reflected in this book.