How did fire "co-evolve" with plants? Can we predict future fire regimes on planet Earth? Do earthquakes, epidemics and forest fires have anything in common?

What makes fires go out, and why is this an important question? How simple can a model be to be useful?

Fire has enthralled people for centuries. Today wildfires remain difficult to predict and understand, but are important to us because of impacts on livelihoods, the atmosphere and our environment. Combustion is a chemical process, but plants provide the fuel. Thus patterns of fire are influenced by the biology of ecosystems and have changed dramatically over millions of years of plant evolution.

Despite this, we are beginning to recognise and understand fundamental physical controls of fire related to how fires move through landscapes. Surprisingly, this shows that fires can behave in ways similar to earthquakes, landslides, and epidemics. However, this theoretical knowledge can sometimes seem quite distant from real-world problems relating to fire.

In this session of Science & Cocktails Johannesburg, Sally Archibald will discuss how this new understanding can help us manage fires in different ecosystems and how global models of the earth system that better represent fire, help us to have a better understanding of the types of futures we may have in our biological world.

Afterwards, fiery cocktails at the bar while we move through a range of musical landscapes to the sounds of the Siphephelo Ndlovu Project.

Image Credit: Sally Archibald