PYROPHOB at the Galileo Conference

"Fire impacts at the Earth surface across space and time: perspectives for future fire management"

PYROPHOB researchers presented their joint project to an international audience of experts at the international EGU Galileo Conference GC9-Fire. At the conference entitled "Fire impacts at the Earth surface across space and time: perspectives for future fire management", which was hosted by the organisational team around Elisabeth Dietze from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bad Belzig from 28 March to 1 April 2022, around 40 international scientists from different disciplines exchanged ideas. In addition to keynotes and short presentations, there was plenty of room for discussion in five sessions.

The topics presented ranged from palaeontological findings on the history of fires and the effects of fires on landscapes to fire management and future research. Much of the debate revolved around fire modelling and management issues, as well as adaptation strategies to increasing wildfires due to climate change.

The PYROPHOB team hosted the full-day excursion to the project area near Treuenbrietzen. The visit to the research plots in the private and (former) communal forest, where the development of pyrophobic forests after a forest fire event is being studied, was an important addition to the theoretical lectures and discussions in the conference rooms. To set the mood for the excursion, Jeanette Blumröder from the Eberswalde University of Applied Sciences gave a keynote lecture "Strategies for developing pyrophobic and climate resilient forests at burned areas - The PYROPHOB Project" to introduce the project goals and partners as well as the research approaches of the overall project. In the field, researchers from the joint project explained their methods at various stations and presented first results. During the excursion, there was also time for discussions about the conference topic and an exchange between representatives of other research projects. The feedback from the participants was very positive, and the group photo also shows the good mood.

On the penultimate day of the conference, Pierre Ibisch gave the keynote lecture "Forests in the 21st century and the paradigm of ecosystem functionality". The concluding discussions focused on future approaches to landscape fires - including cultural aspects. In addition, further workshops are planned to deepen cooperation on specific research topics. Overall, the participation of the PYROPHOB collaborative partners and the presentation of the project at the Galileo Fire Conference have contributed significantly to networking with the international scientific community. The fact that the PYROPHOB data can also provide empirical evidence for other disciplines underlines the enormous importance of the joint project, which is being funded by the Agency for Renewable Resources (FNR) as part of the Forest Climate Fund set up by the BMEL and BMUV.