Introduction to the themed issue: Wildfire and Geomorphic Systems

Abstract

AbstractWildfires alter fluxes of water, sediment, solutes, and organic matter in ways that can be transient or persistent. Alterations in material flux then impact geomorphic processes and landforms in a manner that can also be transient or persistent and that can involve complex response. This themed issue includes papers that document distinctive geomorphic responses in the upland and channel components of forested landscapes in southern Europe, northern Australia, and the western United States. Among the themes that emerge from the collected papers are: (i) the importance of ongoing technological developments, including real‐time instrumentation, ground‐based and aerial remote sensing, isotopic ratios, and numerical models of landscape processes, for documenting and predicting fire‐related geomorphic processes; and (ii) the great uncertainties about future landscape change in a global environment of rapidly changing climate and growing human populations that encroach onto remaining wildlands in fire‐susceptible regions. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.