Patagonia
Understanding fire-human dynamics along a forest-steppe ecotone, Patagonia
This project, funded by NSF Geography and Spatial Sciences program, runs from 2015-2018. We will be examining the spatial and temporal scales that humans, through their use of fire, have altered natural vegetation. This project uses a state-of-the-art vegetation model, new paleoecological techniques, and iterative data-model comparisons within a hypothesis-testing framework to study the dynamics of the forest-steppe border in western Argentina. The study area is an important and singular biogeographic area under
consideration for UNESCO World Heritage status to protect its vital ecosystem services from climate change, land-use threats, increasing fire activity, and non-native plant invasion. The study will provide new datasets and important insights about past ecosystem resilience, information that can inform conservation and resource management of a fragile ecoregion. Through a combination of modeling experiments and data analysis, key hypotheses will be examined to consider the causes and consequences of human-set fire at lower treeline. Critical scientific questions concern the (1) nature of past and present fire regimes driven by climate and vegetation (fuels) conditions, with and without human influence; (2) ecological consequences of different land-use practices that required fire; and (3) potential vegetation feedbacks that may have reinforced deliberate burning strategies. Results will be shared with national park staff and forest managers as well as the international fire-science community through public databases, publications, and presentations.
