An AIMES Young Scholar’s Network Interdisciplinary Workshop:

Cultural Uses and Impacts of Landscape Fires:

Past, Present and Future

Organizing Committee:

Natalie Mahowald, Kathy Hibbard, Don Hankins, Silvia Kloster, Caroline Lehmann, Marko Scholze,

Jonathon Foley, James Randerson, Catherine Whitlock

For millennia humans have utilized fire as a tool of landscape management, and in some regions this process continues.  The historic impacts of fire on the environment and climate are thought to be significant. In this workshop we explore the drivers of human use of landscape fires, as well as the impacts.  We will explore indigenous and contemporary management of landscape fire across scales from anthropologic, historic, paleoclimate, ecologic, biogeochemical and climate perspectives. 

 

This is a working workshop, meaning that participants will be expected to help prepare a white paper before the workshop, present their work at the meeting, and finish the whitepaper after the workshop.  Several senior speakers will be involved in the workshop.  All participant travel, lodging and meals will be funded.  We encourage graduate students, and young scholars (<10 years from PhD) to apply for the workshop before March 15, 2008. The workshop will take place in Boulder, July 14 to 18 2008.  Space will be limited to approximately 25. 

Applications are due March 15, 2008.  Please send 1) CV,  2)  cover letter indicating your own research area, how this workshop would benefit from your attendance, and how you would benefit from this workshop and 3) one reference letter from your supervisor to: mahowald at cornell.edu.

Information on previous workshops is available at http: //www.aimes.ucar.edu/activities/ysn

Click here to download a flyer for this activity

Click here for more information on Natalie - and the YSN page at Cornell

This workshop is supported by NSF/ASP, PAGES, QUEST and NSF Carbon and Water.  The Young Scholar’s Network is a sub-project of the Analysis, Integration and Modeling of the Earth System (AIMES) Project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP).

 

Preliminary program:  We will meet for 5 days (July 15-19) in Boulder, Colorado. 

Day 1: discuss the current state of understanding of fire/human/environment/climate interactions.  This will include the ecology of fires, carbon cycle, and climate impact of fires, as ewll as the distribution of fires and the reason for using fires currently. 

Day 2: Anthropocene (1800-current) fire histories and interactions

Day 3: Paleo fires/anthropology/archeology records of fire and environmental interactions

Day 4: Future fires: changes in land use, management changes, climate changes.

Day 5: Synthesize and write whitepaper.

 

This workshop is supported by NSF/ASP, Past Global Changes (PAGES), QUEST and NSF Carbon and Water.  The Young Scholar’s Network is an activity of the Analysis, Integration and Modeling of the Earth System (AIMES) Project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP).