Conservation planning, boundary-making and border terrains: The desire for forest and order in the Gran Sabana, Venezuela

Conflicts surrounding protected area management often emerge from contested processes of boundary-making. Such productions of bounded conservation spaces are contingent in part on processes of identity formation, where some social groups are legitimized as belonging to conservation units, while others are constructed as out-of-place. This article draws on the literature in postmodern geopolitics and the political ecology of fire to interrogate processes of boundary-making and identity formation in the savanna landscape of Canaima National Park, Venezuela. The institutional culture of the environmental management agency EDELCA is in part premised on narratives of history and indigeneity coupled with a desire for an imagined, forested landscape. Because of the social constructions shaping this institutional culture, the agency maintains an approach to fire management that emphasizes fire suppression. However, an ecological field study suggests that fire suppression is leading to increased fuel loads, especially in ecologically significant boundaries between grasslands and forest. Although these boundary zones are the focus of indigenous practices of prescribed burning, they fall in-between the state management categories of forest and ecotone. As a result, these interstitial spaces become theaters for performances of domination and resistance, leading to contradictory and inconsistent approaches to fire management that place gallery forests at risk.     

Forest–savanna–morichal dynamics in relation to fire and human occupation in the southern Gran Sabana (SE Venezuela) during the last millennia

The southern Gran Sabana (SE Venezuela) holds a particular type of neotropical savanna characterized by the local occurrence of morichales (Mauritia palm swamps), in a climate apparently more suitable for rain forests. We present a paleoecological analysis of the last millennia of Lake Chonita (4°39′N–61°0′W, 884 m elevation), based on biological and physico-chemical proxies. Savannas dominated the region during the last millennia, but a significant vegetation replacement occurred in recent times. The site was covered by a treeless savanna with nearby rainforests from 3640 to 2180 cal yr BP. Water levels were higher than today until about 2800 cal yr BP. Forests retreated since about 2180 cal yr BP onwards, likely influenced by a higher fire incidence that facilitated a dramatic expansion of morichales. The simultaneous appearance of charcoal particles and Mauritia pollen around 2000 cal yr BP supports the potential pyrophilous nature of this palm and the importance of fire for its recent expansion. The whole picture suggests human settlements similar to today – in which fire is an essential element – since around 2000 yr ago. Therefore, present-day southern Gran Sabana landscapes seem to have been the result of the synergy between biogeographical, climatic and anthropogenic factors, mostly fire.     

古火灾历史重建的研究进展

火是地球系统的重要组成部分,与气候、植被、生物地球化学循环和人类活动密切相关。火对全球气候和生态系统的影响已成为目前全球变化研究的一个热点。火灾发生后会在周围的环境中留下许多燃烧产物,如黑碳、木炭屑、多环芳烃、左旋葡萄糖等,它们广泛存在于海洋、湖泊、河流、土壤和陆地风成沉积物中;还会留下一些火灾痕迹,如树木火疤、土壤磁...     

Response of the shortgrass steppe plant community to fire

Fire is an important driver of ecological pattern and process in grasslands worldwide, although its role in semi-arid systems is less well known. We used published studies and new experimental research to 1) provide a synthesis of existing knowledge of fire in the semi-arid grasslands of the North American Great Plains, and 2) assess the degree of similarity in semi-arid and mesic grassland responses to fire in this region. Based on published studies, burning has neutral to negative effects on aboveground productivity in semi-arid grasslands and variable effects on plant communities. To more rigorously assess fire effects, replicated experimental plots were established in ungrazed shortgrass steppe in northern Colorado and prescribed spring fire was applied in 2006 and 2007, 2006 only, or not at all. Aboveground net primary productivity decreased or remained unchanged with burning. Plant community changes included increases in perennial forbs, decreases in annual grasses and a positive response in annual forbs to the combination of fire and a wet spring in 2007. Combined, these results indicate that post-fire changes in productivity in semi-arid grasslands are neutral to negative, in contrast to positive responses in mesic grasslands, and not strongly negative as previously assumed.     

扎龙湿地自然保护区的火灾管理

通过对黑龙江省扎龙湿地自然保护区自然资源状况和火灾特点的分析,结合当地社会经济及环境中存在的问题,为研究地区的林火管理提出具体建议。研究表明,在防火季节,有效地控制火源,提高当地居民的防火意识是预防火灾的关键;此外,保证保护区水源供应在火灾预防中起着关键作用。研究结果可为湿地类型自然保护区的林火管理提供参考。     

EOS/MODIS资料在湖北省林火监测中的应用

介绍了EOS卫星上携带的MODIS传感器的主要特点以及用MODIS资料进行林火监测的原理。根据近年来使用MODIS资料进行林火监测的应用情况,对自动判识火点所需设置的门槛值进行了分析和探索,找到了一种能快速、简便地设置ch21和ch21-ch31门槛值的方法,并通过实例证明该方法在林火监测中是可行的和有效的。     

中国区域年代地层研究取得重要进展

近10余年来,特别是2000年召开第三届地层会议后,中国年代地层研究得到很快发展。首先,在全国地层委员会主持下,经各断代工作组专家们的共同努力,编制完成了《中国区域年代地层（地质年代）表》,系统建立了从震旦系至第四系中共102个阶（其中包括52个陆相地层区的阶）和新建3个系级单位。从2001年开始,在中国地质调查局的大力支持下,由全国地层委员会主持,组织全国知名地质科研院所、高校和部分地质调查院的专家,围绕中国区域年代地层表,开展了系统的建阶研究。5年来,共涉及45个阶,9个界线层型和2个新建系及2个统级单位的研究,取得重要进展。先后已有4个全球界线层型（GSSPs）被国际地质科学联合会批准建立在中国,还有3～4个全球界线层型正待国际地质学科学联合会批准建立在中国,另有3～4个界线层型剖面有望争取成为全球的界线层型。其他研究所涉及到的阶、系、统等单位,也有明显进展,成熟度明显提高,为《中国区域年代地层（地质年代）表》的广泛应用奠定了重要基础。     

GIS支持下森林火场蔓延的空间模拟

林火扩展具有时间和空间特征。对火场模拟必须建立在空间背景数据库之上，即在地理信息系统和遥感技术的辅助下完成。森林火灾的发生发展有内在和外在因素的影响，内在因素包括了可燃物类型、可燃物湿度、地形，考虑这些因素形成了像元尺度植被燃烧基本历时图；外在因素主要是气候的影响，文中利用生成的植被起火概率图控制像元是否起火。在火场扩展中将Ｒｏｔｈｅｒｍｅｌ模型和经验模型结合使用，并考虑了坡度和风向带方向的因素的影响。最后利用迷宫算法在计算机上实现了火场在地理信息系统支持下的空间蔓延动态模拟。     

Too hot to handle: Depoliticisation and the discourse of ecological modernisation in fire management debates

The management of fire within landscapes is a topic of increasing contestation. This is particularly the case in relation to the practice of ‘prescribed burning’, which aims to exercise a form of control of wild fires through the application of science-based techniques that putatively reconcile the conservation of biodiversity with the protection of human life and property in particular places. The belief in possibilities to solve environmental problems by scientific approaches and in outcomes that do not involve harm or vulnerabilities is an element of a trend called “Ecological Modernisation” (EM). Various studies have shown how discourses of EM have come to dominate the ways in which many contemporary environmental problems are approached. We argue that highlighting the presentation of such discourses as neutral and non-politicised precludes a critical examination of the ways in which the knowledge claims upon which they rest can be seen to reinforce only particular sets of constructions of the relationship between humans and the natural world. Through an analysis of knowledge claims made in relation to recurring topics such as the use of fire by Indigenous Australians and the adaptation of species to fire, we illustrate that behind the discourse of ecological modernisation sit deeply engrained variations in terms of where people locate vulnerability in relation to the pressing problem of wildfire and fire management. We argue that the depoliticisation of the topic sustains specific types of relationships between people and nature while delegitimising others and obscures the fundamentally different notions about relationships between humans and non-human nature upon which the debate ultimately pivots.     

Using reverse geocoding to identify prominent wildfire evacuation trigger points

Wildfire evacuation trigger points are prominent geographic features (e.g., ridge lines, rivers, and roads) utilized in timing evacuation warnings. When a fire crosses a feature, an evacuation warning is issued to the communities or firefighters in the path of the fire. Current methods for generating trigger buffers have limited utility because the resulting buffers are not explicitly tied to prominent geographic features, making it difficult to visually determine when a fire has breached a trigger point. This work aims to address this limitation by using reverse geocoding to identify prominent geographic trigger points that have more value to emergency managers. The method consists of three steps: 1) generate a trigger buffer using fire-spread modeling; 2) utilize online reverse-geocoding to retrieve geographic features proximal to the buffer boundary; and 3) identify the most prominent geographic features using viewshed analysis and compute the warning time each would offer given predicted fire spread rates to proximal communities. A case study of Julian, California is presented to identify prominent geographic trigger points that may have value to emergency managers in improving the timing of wildfire evacuation warnings in this region.