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The Landscape Ecology of Fire pp 3–25Cite as

Toward a Theory of Landscape Fire

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Part of the book series: Ecological Studies ((ECOLSTUD,volume 213))

Abstract

Landscape ecology is the study of relationships between spatial pattern and ecological process (Turner 1989; Turner et al. 2001). It is the subfield of ecology that requires an explicit spatial context, in contrast to ecosystem, community, or population ecology (Allen and Hoekstra 1992). One major theme in landscape ecology is how natural disturbances both create and respond to landscape pattern (Watt 1947; Pickett and White 1985; Turner and Romme 1994). Landscape disturbance has been defined ad nauseum, but here we focus on its punctuated nature, in that the rates of disturbance propagation are not always coupled with those of other ecological processes that operate more continuously in space and time. Disturbance can therefore change landscape pattern abruptly, and large severe disturbances can be a dominant structuring force on landscapes (Romme et al. 1998).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Laboratory, U.S. Forest Service, 400 N 34th St., Ste. 201, Seattle, WA, 98103-8600, USA

    Donald McKenzie

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  1. Donald McKenzie
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  2. Carol Miller
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  3. Donald A. Falk
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Correspondence to Donald McKenzie .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Pacific Wildlife Fire Sciences Laborator, US Forest Service, N 34th Ste. room 201 400, Seattle, 98103-8600, Washington, USA

    Donald McKenzie

  2. Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institu, US Forest Service, E. Beckwith Ave. 790, Misoula, 59801, Massachusetts, USA

    Carol Miller

  3. School of Natural Resources and the Envi, University of Arizona, Tuscon, 85721-0001, Arizona, USA

    Donald A. Falk

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McKenzie, D., Miller, C., Falk, D.A. (2011). Toward a Theory of Landscape Fire. In: McKenzie, D., Miller, C., Falk, D. (eds) The Landscape Ecology of Fire. Ecological Studies, vol 213. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0301-8_1

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