ReviewPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2016
The role of fire in UK peatland and moorland management: the need for informed, unbiased debate.
Review in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 130 citations in OpenAlex.
- Adaptive plant traits under anthropogenic burning regimes: A database for UK heath and mire plant species.American journal of botany · 2025Article
- The use of fire to preserve biodiversity under novel fire regimes.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Priority research directions for wildfire science: views from a historically fire-prone and an emerging fire-prone country.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Integrated fire management as an adaptation and mitigation strategy to altered fire regimes.Communications earth & environment · 2025Review
- Diurnal fuel moisture content variations of live and dead Calluna vegetation in a temperate peatland.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Resilience of temperate peatland vegetation communities to wildfire depends upon burn severity and pre-fire species composition.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Historical anthropogenic disturbances explain long-term moorland vegetation dynamics.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Article
- Moorland vegetation burning debates should avoid contextomy and anachronism: a comment on Davies et al. (2016).Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Article
- The role of fire in UK upland management: the need for informed challenge to conventional wisdoms: a comment on Davies et al. (2016).Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Article
- The peatland vegetation burning debate: keep scientific critique in perspective. A response to Brown et al. and Douglas et al.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Article
- At the nexus of fire, water and society.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Review
- In the line of fire: the peatlands of Southeast Asia.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Review
- Global trends in wildfire and its impacts: perceptions versus realities in a changing world.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Article
- Wildfire policy and management in England: an evolving response from Fire and Rescue Services, forestry and cross-sector groups.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Article
- Fire effects on soils: the human dimension.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Review
- The discovery of fire by humans: a long and convoluted process.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Review
- The interaction of fire and mankind: Introduction.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Article
- Living on a flammable planet: interdisciplinary, cross-scalar and varied cultural lessons, prospects and challenges.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Review
- Regional variation in fire weather controls the reported occurrence of Scottish wildfires.PeerJ · 2016Article
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 10 institutions in 6 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Fire has been used for centuries to generate and manage some of the UK's cultural landscapes. Despite its complex role in the ecology of UK peatlands and moorlands, there has been a trend of simplifying the narrative around burning to present it as an only ecologically damaging practice. That fire modifies peatland characteristics at a range of scales is clearly understood. Whether these changes are perceived as positive or negative depends upon how trade-offs are made between ecosystem services and the spatial and temporal scales of concern. Here we explore the complex interactions and trade-offs in peatland fire management, evaluating the benefits and costs of managed fire as they are currently understood. We highlight the need for (i) distinguishing between the impacts of fires occurring with differing severity and frequency, and (ii) improved characterization of ecosystem health that incorporates the response and recovery of peatlands to fire. We also explore how recent research has been contextualized within both scientific publications and the wider media and how this can influence non-specialist perceptions. We emphasize the need for an informed, unbiased debate on fire as an ecological management tool that is separated from other aspects of moorland management and from political and economic opinions.This article is part of the themed issue 'The interaction of fire and mankind'.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.