"Fire" in Science News
"Fire" --by Solmaz Barazesh in Science News
from the article:
"Earth is a fire planet. Ever since the first plants appeared — and provided fuel — more than 420 million years ago, fire has flourished in Earth’s oxygenated atmosphere. Some scientists even think that long before humans, fire carved out entire landscapes, clearing dense forests to make way for grasslands.
In recent years, the fingers of flame have extended their reach over more of the Earth’s surface. Wildfires are occurring more often and becoming more severe, a perplexing change in fire patterns that threatens to transform ecosystems, reduce biodiversity and even alter climate. To stamp out the flames, researchers have to understand why fire is spreading and figure out how to fight fire with science.
Fire has many faces. It helps some ecosystems thrive but destroys others. It helps people clear land but can also destroy homes and take lives. Sometimes useful, sometimes destructive, fire is always unpredictable — and that makes it a difficult subject..."
from the article:
"Earth is a fire planet. Ever since the first plants appeared — and provided fuel — more than 420 million years ago, fire has flourished in Earth’s oxygenated atmosphere. Some scientists even think that long before humans, fire carved out entire landscapes, clearing dense forests to make way for grasslands.
In recent years, the fingers of flame have extended their reach over more of the Earth’s surface. Wildfires are occurring more often and becoming more severe, a perplexing change in fire patterns that threatens to transform ecosystems, reduce biodiversity and even alter climate. To stamp out the flames, researchers have to understand why fire is spreading and figure out how to fight fire with science.
Fire has many faces. It helps some ecosystems thrive but destroys others. It helps people clear land but can also destroy homes and take lives. Sometimes useful, sometimes destructive, fire is always unpredictable — and that makes it a difficult subject..."
Tags: fire
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Permalink Reply by Connie Weber on
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Burning issues: A new experiment is setting the Amazon on fire
From The Economist
From the article:
"THIS month Jennifer Balch will head into the Amazon rainforest of Mato Grosso state, in Brazil. She intends to set fire to it and find out what happens. When Dr Balch, who is based at Woods Hole Research Centre, in Massachusetts, and her 30 helpers have finished their weeklong task, 50 hectares will have been torched. “It’s pretty darn exciting, and a bit crazy”, she says, “to see a bunch of researchers running around burning down a forest.”
The questions that prompt all this destruction are important. The first is: will tropical forests survive the increasing occurrence of wildfires as the climate changes and people move in, or will the landscape shift from one ruled by trees to one dominated by grassland? The second is: how much carbon do such wildfires release into the atmosphere?"
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