FIRESCAPES – Fire Regimes in Socio-Cultural and Palaeoecological Environments

FIRESCAPES investigates how fire has shaped—and been shaped by—human land use practices across diverse ecosystems over millennia. Fire functions as both a natural ecological process and a cultural tool, influencing biodiversity, vegetation, and soil systems. This project integrates palaeoecological proxies (e.g., charcoal, pollen, geochemistry, FTIR) with archaeological and historical data to reconstruct long-term fire regimes in tropical rainforest ecotones, savannas, and montane forests. Research spans case studies in the Amazon, the Caribbean, southeastern Australia, Sri Lanka, California, and Africa—regions where fire has played critical roles in land management, ecological transformation, and social adaptation.

By tracing past fire frequency, intensity, and ecological impacts, the project identifies socio-environmental tipping points, from past Indigenous cultural burning to colonial land-use intensification and industrial-era disruptions. These long-term records reveal how changing fire dynamics intersect with broader patterns of land use, deforestation, and climate variability. The findings support the development of fire-adapted land management strategies and contribute to discussions on resilience, sustainability, and regenerative practices in the face of escalating environmental pressures. While FIRESCAPES brings together diverse case studies on long-term fire dynamics, complementary work is currently under proposal to explore fire resilience and Indigenous knowledge integration at a broader scale.