Fire in Ecosystems of Boreal Eurasia

The volume analyzes the accumulated state of wildland fire science in the boreal forest zone of Eurasia. The volume is mainly based on research achievements from the former Soviet Union and on ongoing programs of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Selected contributions from fire ecology, remote sensing and atmospheric chemistry from boreal Fennoscandia and North America provide the latest state of research and the link to the global importance of fire in the boreal zone. In the context of global change research, boreal fire science is receiving increasing attention, e.g. related to prehistoric, historic and modern influences of fire on vegetation dynamics, the role of fire in the atmosphere, biogeochemical cycles and climate (carbon cycle, chemistry of the free troposphere and stratosphere, e.g. tropospheric ozone increase, stratospheric ozone depletion). The volume provides a basic analysis for upcoming international and interdisciplinary studies at regional and global scale, e.g. in the frame of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), particularly the IGBP Northern Eurasia Study, and the activities of the International Boreal Forest Research Association (IBFRA).