Pyrogeographyof the 2017 Chile Fire Storm: Hard lessons for the fire in the Anthropocene

Session: Global wildfire challenges

Presenter: David Bowman (Environmental Chnage Biology, University of Tasmania)

Contact email: david.bowman@utas.edu.au

The Environmental Change Biology Laboratory

at the University of Tasmania led by Professor David Bowman.

A key focus of the group is understanding the impacts of global

environmental change on Australian landscapes and fire

regimes.

Link: http://www.utas.edu.au/profiles/staff/plant-science/David-Bowman

ABSTRACT: In January 2017 hundreds of fires in Mediterranean Chile burnt more that 5,000 km2, an area nearly 14 times the 40-year mean even though the total number of fires was within the range of historical variability. The fires were some of the most energetically intense fire events on Earth. The fires were driven by extreme fire weather conditions associated with  high temperatures, and further enabled by a warm moist growing season in 2016 that interrupted a severe drought.  The land cover in this region has been extensively modified, with less than 20% of the original native vegetation remaining, and extensive plantations of highly flammable exotic Pinus and Eucalyptus species established since the 1970s.  These plantations were associated with the highest fire severities. Smoke from the fires exposed over 9.5 million people to increased concentrations of particulate air pollution, causing an premature deaths admissions to hospital for respiratory and cardiovascular conditions. This study highlights that Mediterranean biogeographic regions with expansive Pinus and Eucalyptus plantations and associated rural depopulation are vulnerable to intense wildfires with wide ranging social, economic and environmental impacts, which are likely to become more frequent due to longer and more extreme wildfire seasons.