dentifying the climate and human-driven disturbance regime change is one of the most challenging issues facing natural resource management.  WildFIRE PIRE will utilize the similarities and contrasts in fire, climate, and land-use interactions in four fire-influenced settings as a platform for integrated fire-science research and education: Patagonia, Tasmania, South Island of New Zealand, and the western U.S. This research contributes to understanding the consequences of climate change and variability and land-cover conversion through (1) an examination of key biospheric variables, (2) the use of paleo- and modern environmental data to link responses among sites, regions, and hemispheres; and (3) an analysis of the feedbacks between fire regimes, land-cover (particularly non-native plant species as a component of land-cover), and climate change.

New Zealand Pine Invasion Research Video: The video is about a study of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) invasion in the southern hemisphere where there are no native pines and fire is historically infrequent. Lodgepole has the potential to significantly change the ecology of New Zealand (South Island) and Chile and Argentina (Patagonia) native forests and shrub steppe ecosystems. Researchers present the story of this interesting ecological phenomena in this film.

Click on an image to view as a slideshow.

Click on an image to view as a slideshow.