- Author
-
Batchelder, R. B.
|
Hirt, H. F.
- Title
- Fire in Tropical Forests and Grasslands.
- Coporate
- Boston Univ., MA
- Sponsor
- Army Natick Labs., MA
- Report
-
ES-23
June 1966
380 p.
- Distribution
- Available from National Technical Information Service
- Keywords
-
forest fires
|
grasslands
|
forestry
|
meteorology
|
fire suppression
- Identifiers
- tropical environments; applied climatology; tropical forests; tropical grasslands; tropical meteorology; tropical soils; swidden cultivation; pastoral nomadism; forest management; pasture management; cyclical patterns of burning; military implications of fires
- Abstract
- Fire in the tropics has a long history in which freuent wide-spread urning has profoundly altered physical and cultural environments. A vast and diverse literature pertaining to fire and its effects in tropical forests and grasslands has been evaluated, classified and presented in a selected bibliography. Emphasis is on the relation of fire to climate, natural vegetation, soils, cultural origins, technological level and way of life and other significant factors of the total environment. The incidence and frequency of occurrence of fire are examined in terms of the geographic distribution of passive and active environmental characteristics. The relationship of burning to climate and natural vegetation is shown on maps which represent a first attempt to depict the geographic distribution of fire in the tropics. Potential combustibility and the implications of fire to military operations are discussed.