GREENCYCLESII

T5.5 Yannis Bistinas

Vegetation fires are considered to be a process of global scale that strongly affects the biogeochemical cycles but also the vegetation dynamics. Apart from the large impact of fires to regional and global ecology and climate, there is also a strong interaction between fires and global change that can influence their spatial-temporal variability.

The main goal of this research is to identify global scale patterns concerning fire ignition and occurrence, and study two different aspects. That would be a process based modeling component, and a statistical analysis. In other words, studying how a process based model captures large scale patterns and comparing their spatial statistics with validated datasets.

Research guidelines

· Using LPX (Land-surface Processes and eXchanges), a process based model coupled with a fire module, in order to assess the geographic pattern of burned area and its seasonal timing through climate driven modelling.

· Contribute in understanding and improving fire parameterization in global scale.

· Identifying environmental determinants of continental-scale fire distribution boundaries

· Exploring the factors for fire ignitions in comparison with the burned area.

· Exploring the climate-fire interactions that affect the interannual variability of fire occurrence.

· Studying the anthropogenic fire ignitions, both accidental and deliberate in relation to seasonal fire variability and geographical distribution.