Fires Flashcards
What are the elements of the fire triangle?
Oxygen, heat, fuel
How is fire a sensory experience?
By being a chemical reaction between oxygen in the atmosphere and some sort of fuel (wood, gas)
What are the different types of landscape fires?
Wildfire - unplanned fire that’s difficult to control (forest, grass, bush fires)
Planned - it’s planned (ecological, hazard reduction, cultural burns)
How does fire affect UN Sustainable development goals?
It affects the well being of flora and fauna, the health of the ecosystem and people, jobs, supplies/services, air quality. Etc.
What are the three fire hazard groups?
Physical hazards before and after a fire
Personal and social impacts - well-being of individuals and communities
Impacts from degraded water and air
Define ‘Earth system’
The interacting set of biological, chemical and physical processes that work together to determine the function of the earth.
How does fire affect the earth?
Fire affects approximately 3-4% of the earth’s surface every year. And is an important ecological disturbance that resets ecosystems
Was fire always present throughout time? When and how did it show up?
No. For it to be on land, it needs oxygen and fuel, but there wasn’t any.
As life evolved (esp. plants) fuels (trees) showed up more. Bringing new types of fires. That shaped plant and landscape evolution
How does fire affect the four spheres (hydro, bio, geological, atmosphere)?
Atmosphere - fire doesn’t burn below 15-15% oxygen. At 30% wet plants burn. Fires release stored carbon back into the atmosphere.
Geologicalsphere - changes soil moisture, nutrient levels, organic matter and pH. Also affects soil microbiology, erosion, water absorption.
Hydrosphere - increased flooding, nutrients entering the waterways(C,N,P). Increased metals washed into water, sedimentation.
Biosphere - burns some or all vegetation, resets ecosystem, weeds take advantage.
What is a fire regime?
A fire event - intensity, frequency, season it occurred in
How does low intensity fires affect animals and vegetation?
Animals - can get away, fly away, few deaths
Vegetation - logs okay, short shrubs are not but tall shrubs are fine, just their lower bits are not. However with fibrous trunks, the fire can go up the trunk to higher levels.
How does high intensity fires affect animals and vegetation?
Animals - kills most birds, mammals and invertebrates in the soil
Vegetation - everything is consumed, even canopy trees
Explain the different types of fire trends
Megafire - greater, longer burning fires
Burnt areas - larger areas burnt
Extreme fire behaviours - fire thunderclouds
Severity- more severe now, earlier season
Vegetation being extremely sensitive to repeated short interval fires
Resource sharing - overseas or in-house volunteering
How is soil affected by fire?
volatilisation nutrients being lost by turning into gas or carried away as smoke
leaching removes soil nutrients into waterways
erosion degrades soil
How fires affect the hydrosphere
Strips vegetation so there’s nothing to slow the flow of water or picking up soil. Can’t absorb water. When in water, creates algal blooms and suffocates fish.
