coordinator : J.M. MORENO
The objectives of LUCCIFER are :
To develop a general understanding of how recent historical changes in land-use have altered landscape structure in all the Mediterranean-type countries of the EU, how such changes may have contributed to increase fire occurrence, and how fires may have further altered the landscape and, by doing so, what risks for fire occurrence or for the preservation of soil and biodiversity resources may have emerged. Integration of knowledge gained during the course of the project through modeling will provide needed tools to help manage fire-prone areas to reduce risk of fire and the ensuing impacts to the ecosystem.
General objective 1: To determine how land use changes have altered the structure of the landscape, this is, the type, shape, size and spatial arrangement of patches, in the last 2-4 decades in fire prone areas of all the Mediterranean countries of the EU, how much of such changes have been produced by fire, what role have the mentioned landscape changes played in promoting the fire disturbance, and, based on past landscape reconstruction and fire incidence, model future landscape dynamics.
General objective 2: To asses whether fires induce a further homogenization of the burned area by evaluating the changes in patchiness (i.e., heterogeneity) created by the fire, particularly in prefire homogeneous areas, in relation to the burning conditions, and by determining whether convergent postfire dynamics occur in prefire heterogeneous landscapes due to different land use history.
General objective 3: To measure postfire flows of soil, water and nutrients from a burned landscape (watershed) and from the patches of the system, and relate these to the characteristics, and their spatial variability, of factors (soil quality, LAI recovery, etc.) potentially affecting such flows.
General objetive 4: To establish the role of patch size (size of fire, different burned areas within a fire) on postfire plant and animal dynamics in various ecosystems across de Mediterranean region (West to East). Plant species as well as some important animal will be studied; asses the basis for species change and potential colonization by new species. Evaluate similar role of patch size on rare and endemic plant species, and, in addition, analyze the fire ecology of selected groups of rare/endemic species to further understand their sensitivity to the changes in the landscape induced by fire.
contact :
J.M. MORENO
Universitad de castilla la mancha
Facultad de Ciencias del Medio Ambiente
Cardenal Lorenzana,1
45071 Toledo
Spain
jmmoreno@vic-to.uclm.es
web site :
http://euro.cefe.cnrs-mop.fr/lucifer/default.htm