IDEAL UK FIRE: Toward Informed Decisions on Ecologically Adaptive Land management for mitigating UK FIRE

对英国易发火灾的景观进行有针对性的管理，对于使该国实现到2050年实现净零排放和到2030年停止物种减少的承诺至关重要。我们许多容易发生火灾的景观代表了全国重要的碳(C)储存。它们也为一些独特的物种提供了重要的栖息地，其中包括许多英国BAP优先物种名单上的物种，具有战略保护价值。但这些典型的灌木和草为主的生态系统受到英国野火制度变化和一些旨在减轻这种风险的管理工具的威胁。因此，在偶发性严重野火事件的影响与持续的长期管理实践之间，以及管理工具对不同优先生态系统服务的积极和消极影响之间，存在着关键的权衡；特别是在碳储量、生境管理和生物多样性提供之间。这些权衡和相关的最佳管理做法将因具有不同管理历史、植被组成、遗留土壤C储量和自然环境条件的景观而异。因此，需要非常仔细地考虑从现有的各种工具包中选择适当的土地管理方法；用正确的工具在正确的位置处理正确的优先事项。然而，做出这一复杂选择的证据基础目前还很薄弱。这削弱了地方和国家决策者评估不同野火管理工具后果的能力。IDEAL UK FIRE将通过确定广泛应用的燃料管理工具（燃烧、砍伐、再湿润和管理演为）对栖息地质量、生物多样性和易发生火灾的英国景观的碳平衡的环境成本和效益，解决这一迫切需求。我们将直接对比这些中期/长期应对措施与燃料管理干预措施和不同严重程度的潜在野火的初步影响。通过i)观察和整理广泛的历史监测，ii)实验燃烧和更广泛的管理干预，以及iii)适应和应用JULES陆地表面模型，FlamMap火灾分析系统和rangshifter生态进化建模平台，该项目将：-量化不同景观和不同土地管理策略下一系列（野生）火灾和管理强度的碳消耗和木炭生产。-通过国家管理工具的时间顺序确定干预后生物多样性和碳平衡的中期轨迹。-开发下一代模型，模拟土地管理战略对英国生态系统碳平衡、碳气候反馈、栖息地质量和生物多样性的国家长期影响。我们将所有这些知识嵌入到新开发的土地管理部门认可培训模块中。该模块帮助土地管理者了解不同管理工具的后果，支持他们在其景观中做出明智的决策，以最好地实现国家和地方的管理目标。培训方案将提供一个评估土地管理做法的通用框架，并提供一个知识平台，向政府提供有关野火管理工具的成本和效益的政策信息。

Targeted management of the UK's fire prone landscapes will be crucial in enabling the country to achieve its commitments both to reach net zero by 2050 and to halt species decline by 2030. Many of our fire prone landscapes represent nationally significant carbon (C) stores. They also provide key habitats for unique species including many on the UK BAP Priority Species listing and are of strategic conservation value. But these typically shrub and grass dominated ecosystems are threatened both by the changing UK wildfire regime and some management tools aimed to mitigate this risk. Critical trade-offs therefore exist between the impact of episodic severe wildfire events and ongoing long term management practises, as well as between the positive and negative impacts of management tools on different prioritised ecosystem services; notably between C storage, habitat management and biodiversity provision. These trade-offs and the associated best management practises will vary between landscapes that have different management history, vegetation composition, legacy soil C stores and natural environmental conditions. Thus selection of the appropriate land management from the diverse toolkit available needs to be very carefully considered; the right tool to address the right priorities at the right location. The evidence base to make this complex choice, however, is currently weak. This undermines the ability of decision makers locally and nationally to assess the consequences of different wildfire management tools.IDEAL UK FIRE will address this urgent need, by determining the environmental costs and benefits of widely applied fuel management tools (burning, cutting, rewetting and managed succession) on habitat quality, biodiversity and the carbon balance in fire prone UK landscapes. We will directly contrast those medium-/long-term responses against the initial impact of the fuel management interventions and potential wildfires of varying severity. Through i) observations and collation of extensive historical monitoring, ii) experimental burns and wider management intervention and iii) the adaptation and application of the JULES land surface model, FlamMap fire analysis system and the Rangeshifter eco-evolutionary modelling platform, the project will:- Quantify carbon consumption and charcoal production across a range of (wild)fire and management intensities in different landscapes and under different land management strategies. - Determine the medium-term trajectories of biodiversity and carbon balance post intervention through a national chronosequence of management tools.- Develop next generation models to simulate the national long-term consequences of land management strategies to the UK ecosystem carbon balance, carbon climate feedbacks, habitat quality and biodiversity. We embed all this knowledge into a newly developed accredited training module for the land management sector. The module supports land managers to understand the consequences of different management tools, supporting them to make informed decisions in their landscapes to best meet both national and local management goals. The training programme will provide a generalisable frame-work to evaluate land management practices and a knowledge platform to inform government policy on the costs and benefits of wildfire management tools.