QUEX Workshop: Fire Regimes in Tropical and Sub-Tropical Peatlands During the Holocene

Posted by Ted Feldpausch

27 November 2021

A two-day hybrid workshop (both online and in-person) was held on 25th and 26th November 2021 that included 20 participants from different institutions in the United Kingdom, Australia, Colombia, Spain, and Brazil.

This workshop was paper-oriented, with data from the HOLOPEATFIRE project, which focuses on peatlands fires in the Holocene, and seeks potential contributions and assistance.

The paper attempts to answer the following questions, around which the workshop discussions were structured.

What are the main climate drivers? For example, what is the relationship between drought events and fire?
How do humans shape the landscape by fire?
Are peatlands behaving the same or different in terms of fire from the rest of the ecosystems?
How can this study inform future fire management in peatlands ecosystems?

The workshop program was divided into 4 sessions. Session 1 included the ice breaker and an introduction to the workshop. Sessions 2 and 3 had the theme of talks and discussions on fire patterns, drivers, and related charcoal analysis. Session 4 focused on the frame of the paper identifying research questions for tropical peatlands in the HOLOPEATFIRE project.

The workshop was jointly organised by the University of Exeter and the University of Queensland, and it was supported by the QUEX Institute – a partnership of The University of Queensland and the University of Exeter.

Available talks can be found here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxOZX05jEaIECbS1dRerWd_EomFL1IYJq.