The Fire in the Mediterranean Region: A Case Study of Forest Fires in Portugal

Abstract

Forest fires are a common disturbance in many forest systems in the world and in particular in the Mediterranean region. Their origins can be either natural or anthropogenic. The effects in regard to the time trends, vegetation, and soil will be reflected in the species distribution, forest composition, and soil potential productivity. In general, it can be said that the larger the fire and the shorter the time between two consecutive occurrences, the higher the probability to originate shifts in vegetation and soil degradation. In the Mediterranean region, the number of fire ignitions does not reflect the burnt area due to the occurrence of very large fires. The latter occur in a very small proportion of the number of ignitions, but result in very large burnt areas. Also there seems to be an increasing trend toward larger fires in the Mediterranean region due mainly to climatic and land use changes. This case study highlights the importance of vegetation regrowth a short time after the fire to maintain both forest systems and soil conservation.

Forest structural diversity characterization in Mediterranean landscapes affected by fires using Airborne Laser Scanning data

“…The Mediterranean Basin is very biodiverse (Medail and Quezel 1999), but it is an environment that is frequently affected by wildfires (Gonçalves and Sousa 2017) mainly induced by climate and human activity (Jiménez-Ruano, Rodrigues, and de la Riva 2017). However, a downward trend in burned area size has been observed in the Mediterranean region over the past 30 years due to fire suppression policies (Rodrigues et al 2013).…”

Environmental drivers of fire severity in extreme fire events that affect Mediterranean pine forest ecosystems

“…Wildfire is a major disturbance in Mediterranean ecosystems all around the world (Gonçalves and Sousa, 2017) and, particularly, in the Mediterranean basin where large areas have burned in recent decades (Oliveira et al, 2012). According to González-De Vega et al (2016), the size and severity of wildfires are expected to continue increasing in the future, due to a combination of climate change, land use/land cover changes and forest management policies.…”

Projections of future climate for Europe, Uruguay and China with implications on forestry

“…Increase in the frequency and severity of summer droughts will have an impact on forest fire danger. In the Mediterranean region, large forest fires occur almost every summer, and huge fires are not rare either in the boreal forests of Russia and Canada (e.g., Flannigan et al, 2009;Mei et al, 2011;Vivchar, 2011;Gonçalves and Sousa, 2017).…”