Wildland Fire Science Literacy: Education, Creation, and Application

Devan McGranahan,Carissa Wonkka

doi:10.3390/fire1030052

Abstract

Wildland fire science literacy is the capacity for wildland fire professionals to understand and communicate three aspects of wildland fire: (1) the fundamentals of fuels and fire behavior, (2) the concept of fire as an ecological regime, and (3) multiple human dimensions of wildland fire and the socio-ecological elements of fire regimes. Critical to wildland fire science literacy is a robust body of research on wildland fire. Here, we describe how practitioners, researchers, and other professionals can study, create, and apply robust wildland fire science. We begin with learning and suggest that the conventional fire ecology canon include detail on fire fundamentals and human dimensions. Beyond the classroom, creating robust fire science can be enhanced by designing experiments that test environmental gradients and report standard data on fuels and fire behavior, or at least use the latter to inform models estimating the former. Finally, wildland fire science literacy comes full circle with the application of robust fire science as professionals in both the field and in the office communicate with a common understanding of fundamental concepts of fire behavior and fire regime.

Highlights

Fire is widely recognized as an ecological process integral to ecosystem functioning worldwide.Likewise, widespread appreciation for associations between local biomass burning and global biogeochemical cycling has highlighted the importance of understanding the complexity of fire in the Earth system
We outline a framework to promote wildland fire science literacy: robust wildland fire science education that enhances the capacity of undergraduate and graduate learners to study, understand, and apply the fundamentals of wildland fire under dynamic ecological, environmental, and social conditions
Fire science literacy demands every level of wildland fire science education and practice integrate three key aspects of wildland fire: (1) the fundamentals of fuels and fire behavior, (2) the concept of fire as an ecological regime, and (3) multiple human dimensions of wildland fire and the coupled socio-ecological nature of fire regimes, which is generally lacking in ecological conceptual models of wildland fire (Figure 1)

Summary

Introduction

Fire is widely recognized as an ecological process integral to ecosystem functioning worldwide. We outline a framework to promote wildland fire science literacy: robust wildland fire science education that enhances the capacity of undergraduate and graduate learners to study, understand, and apply the fundamentals of wildland fire under dynamic ecological, environmental, and social conditions. (2) the concept of fire as an ecological regime, and (3) multiple human dimensions of wildland fire and the coupled socio-ecological nature of fire regimes, which is generally lacking in ecological conceptual models of wildland fire (Figure 1). While these triangles together encompass most sources of biotic and abiotic variability in the wildland fire environment, the model fails to incorporate human dimensions of wildland fire

Three Realms of Fire Science Literacy

Education

Creation

Application

Conclusions