PIRE: Wildfire feedbacks and consequences of altered fire regimes in the face of climate and land-use change in Tasmania, New Zealand, and the western U.S.

火灾是世界各地森林生态系统的一种重要自然干扰，是气候变化和生物圈响应之间的一个关键但鲜为人知的联系。近几十年来，干旱、土地覆盖改变和非本地植物入侵以惊人的速度改变了自然火灾制度，并在此过程中威胁到地球上的本地生物多样性和人类福祉。这个跨学科的项目侧重于研究澳大利亚、新西兰和美国在火灾、气候和土地利用相互作用方面的异同，因为这些国家都经历过极端干旱、土地利用快速变化以及过去和现在的毁灭性火灾。在这个项目中要解决的主要研究问题是：1)史前和现代的火灾制度在多大程度上受到气候、景观和燃料安排以及人类活动的影响？2)与这些火灾状态在百年和千年时间尺度上的变化相比，20世纪后期有充分记录的变暖是如何改变野火活动的？3)了解野火活动变化的历史范围如何为未来几十年减轻和适应气候变化影响的决策提供信息？最先进的现场、实验室和建模工具将用于重建多个流域过去和现在的火灾状况，并增加我们对区域和半球火灾-气候联系和土地利用反馈的理解。每个国家的人员都为这个由生物学家、地理学家、地球科学家、古气候学家和人类学家组成的跨学科团队提供了独特的专业知识，他们将从古生态学、古气候学、树木生态学、地理信息系统科学和遥感以及火灾行为建模中汲取并整合技术，以研究火灾在生物圈中的过去和现在的作用。该小组预计，这种广泛和综合的方法将有助于提供必要的科学结果，以指导当前和未来与火灾有关的土地使用决策。在美国教育方面的影响包括在5年的时间里培养了两名早期职业科学家、两名博士后研究助理、四名研究生和14名本科生。教育活动包括本科生实习、研究生和博士后奖学金，以及两个国际科学研讨会，为学生和专业人员提供有关火灾科学、全球变化和土地管理等国际问题的培训。将开发团队授课课程、在线课程和讨论以及教育材料，并提供给学术机构、政府机构和非政府组织。这个项目的一个独特之处在于，年轻的电影制作人和科学家参与制作高质量的媒体产品，将项目的触角延伸到大众科学和自然历史的网络平台。PIRE项目将与蒙大拿州立大学（MSU）的科学与自然历史电影制作项目合作，该项目培训科学研究生创建准确而引人注目的媒体，向公众传播STEM学科。关于WildFIRE PIRE研究和发现的播客将通过该项目的网页以及密歇根州立大学屡获殊荣的科学和自然历史网站TERRA：我们世界的本质。该项目的MFA学生和本科生实习生将获得宝贵的实地经验，包括规划、指导和制作描述和报道PIRE项目的火灾研究和科学的迷你纪录片播客。该项目的机构影响包括加强合作伙伴之间的国际合作以及与全球火灾科学界的联系。该项目的研究涉及美国、澳大利亚和新西兰有关气候变化、火灾、生态系统管理和维持本地生物多样性的国家优先事项。它还将加强和促进国际消防项目，包括国际地圈生物圈项目跨项目消防倡议和核心项目活动；英国全球古火工作组；以及NOAA的国际多代理古火数据库来研究全球火灾。此外，包括来自全国各地的本科生，包括来自部落学院的本科生，在海外实地调研和拓展经验将有助于美国院校招募和留住一支多元化和全球参与的本科生骨干队伍。在州一级，该项目支持大学努力与社区、企业、州政府和其他教育实体建立伙伴关系，这将有助于将科学教育和研究与州内紧迫的社会和经济挑战结合起来。该项目的研究结果将提供：(1)更好地理解人类、气候和火灾反馈对不同时空尺度生态系统过程的直接和间接作用；(2)相对于20世纪后期，评估当前不同环境下的火灾活动、风险和危害所需的火灾条件变化的历史范围的信息；(3)发展将历史与现代火灾科学、经验与模型重建联系起来的新方法；(4)培训当前和未来的国际消防科学家。参与该项目的美国机构包括位于波兹曼的蒙大拿州立大学、爱达荷大学、位于博尔德的科罗拉多大学和美国农业部林业局的米苏拉火灾科学实验室。澳大利亚的合作伙伴是塔斯马尼亚大学和澳大利亚国立大学。新西兰的合作伙伴是土地保护研究机构Manaaki Whenua和奥克兰大学。该项目由美国国家科学基金会国际科学与工程办公室、地球科学部、行为与认知科学部、环境生物部、人力资源开发部（部落学院和大学项目）以及正式和非正式环境学习研究部门共同资助。

Fire is an important natural disturbance in forested ecosystems around the world and serves as a critical but poorly understood link between climate change and biosphere response. In recent decades, drought, land-cover alteration, and non-native plant invasions have altered natural fire regimes at an alarming rate, and in the process threatened native biodiversity and human well-being across the planet. This interdisciplinary PIRE project focuses on similarities and contrasts in fire, climate, and land-use interactions in Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. because all have experienced extreme drought, rapid land-use change and past and present devastating fires. The main research questions to be addressed in this project are: 1) To what extent are prehistoric and modern fire regimes shaped by climate, landscape and fuel arrangements, and human activities? 2) How has the well-documented warming of the late 20th century altered wildfire activity in comparison with the variability of these fire regimes at centennial and millennial time scales? 3) How does understanding the historical range of variability of wildfire activity inform decision making with respect to mitigating and adapting to climate change impacts over the next several decades? State-of-the-art field, laboratory, and modeling tools will be used to reconstruct past and current fire regimes in multiple watersheds and increase our understanding of regional and hemispheric fire-climate linkages and land-use feedbacks. Each country's personnel lend unique expertise to this interdisciplinary team of biologists, geographers, geoscientists, paleoclimatologists, and anthropologists who will draw from and integrate techniques in paleoecology, paleoclimatology, dendroecology, GIS science and remote sensing, and fire behavior modeling to examine the past and present role of fire in the biosphere. The PIRE team anticipates that such a broad and integrated approach will help provide the scientific results necessary to guide current and future fire-related land-use decisions. The U.S. educational impacts include the training of two early-career scientists, two postdoctoral research associates, four graduate students, and 14 undergraduate students over a five year period. Educational activities range from undergraduate internships to graduate and postdoctoral fellowships, and two international scientific workshops that will provide training for students and professionals about international issues in fire science, global change, and land management. Team-taught courses, online courses and discussions, and educational materials will be developed and made available to academic institutions, government agencies, and NGOs. One unique feature of this PIRE project is the participation of young filmmakers and scientists to produce high-quality media products to extend the project's outreach to popular science and natural history web platforms. The PIRE project will team with Montana State University (MSU)'s Science and Natural History Filmmaking program, which trains science graduate students to create accurate and compelling media that communicate STEM disciplines to the public. Podcasts of WildFIRE PIRE research and discoveries will be available through the project's webpage as well as via MSU's award-winning science and natural history website TERRA: The Nature of Our World. An MFA student in the program and an undergraduate intern will gain valuable field-based experience planning, directing, and producing mini-documentary podcasts describing and reporting on the PIRE project's fire research and science. Institutional impacts of the project include strengthening international collaborations among partners and linkages to the global fire science community. The project's research addresses national priorities in the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand concerning climate change, fire, ecosystem management, and sustaining native biodiversity. It will also enhance and contribute to international fire programs, including International Geosphere Biosphere Program Cross-Project Fire Initiative and Core Program Activities; the UK-based Global Paleofire Working Group; and NOAA's International Multi-proxy Paleofire Database to study fire globally. In addition, including undergraduates from across the country, including from tribal colleges, in the overseas field research and outreach experiences will help the U.S. institutions recruit and retain a diverse and globally engaged cadre of undergraduates. At a state level, the project supports university efforts to build partnerships with communities, businesses, state government and other educational entities that will help align science education and research with pressing social and economic challenges within the state. Results of the project will provide: (1) a better understanding of the direct and indirect role of humans, climate, and fire feedbacks on ecosystem processes that operate at different temporal and spatial scales; (2) information on the historical range of variability of fire conditions necessary to assess current fire activity, risk and hazard in different settings, relative to that of the late 20th century; (3) development of new approaches that link historical with modern fire science and empirical with modeled reconstructions; and (4) training for current and future international fire scientists. The U.S. institutions partnering in this project include Montana State University at Bozeman, the University of Idaho, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and the USDA Forest Service's Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory (MT). The Australia partners are the University of Tasmania and Australian National University. The New Zealand partners are Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research and the University of Auckland.This project is co-funded by NSF's Office of International Science and Engineering, the Division of Earth Sciences, the Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences, the Division of Environmental Biology, the Division of Human Resource Development (Tribal Colleges and Universities Program) and the Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings.