Aim Although it is established that climate and fire have greatly influenced the long‐term ecosystem dynamics of Patagonia south of 40°S, the environmental history from northernmost Patagonia (37–40°S), where endemic and endangered monkey puzzle tree ( Araucaria araucana ) occurs, is poorly known. Here we ask: (a) What is the Holocene vegetation and fire history at the north‐eastern extent of A. araucana forest? (b) How have c...

Aim Reconstruct the long‐term ecosystem dynamics of the region across an elevational gradient as they relate to climate and local controls. In particular, we (1) describe the dominant conifers' history; (2) assess changes in vegetation composition and distribution; and (3) note periods of abrupt change versus stability as means of better understanding vegetation responses to environmental variability. Location Greater Yellowst...

Conservation efforts to protect forested landscapes are challenged by climate projections that suggest substantial restructuring of vegetation and disturbance regimes in the future. In this regard, paleoecological records that describe ecosystem responses to past variations in climate, fire, and human activity offer critical information for assessing present landscape conditions and future landscape vulnerability. We illustrat...

Mountain ecosystems are characterized by their complex vegetation responses to past climate variability because of the interplay between large‐scale climate changes and local‐scale biotic and abiotic conditions. This study reconstructs the early postglacial expansion of conifer populations in the northern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). The objective is to examine how climate change and non‐climatic factors, including spe...

Invasive plant species that have the potential to alter fire regimes have significant impacts on native ecosystems. Concern that pine invasions in the Southern Hemisphere will increase fire activity and severity and subsequently promote further pine invasion prompted us to examine the potential for feedbacks between Pinus contorta invasions and fire in Patagonia and New Zealand. We determined how fuel loads and fire effects we...

Aim To assess the long‐term impacts of landscape fire on a mosaic of pyrophobic and pyrogenic woody montane vegetation. Location South‐west T asmania, A ustralia. Methods We undertook a high‐resolution multiproxy palaeoecological analysis of sediments deposited in L ake O sborne ( H artz M ountains N ational P ark, southern T asmania), employing analyses of pollen, macroscopic and microscopic charcoal, organic and inorganic ge...

At the time of M āori settlement, ca. 750 years ago, N ew Z ealand's ecosystems experienced catastrophic change, including the introduction of fire to ignition‐limited ecosystems and the resulting widespread loss of forest. While high‐resolution sediment‐charcoal analyses suggest this forest loss was rapid, M āori populations were small and transient during the Initial Burning Period and there is evidence for widespread fire a...

The last 16 000 cal. a of vegetation, fire and limnological history are described from the steppe‐forest ecotone in the northernmost Nothofagus forest region east of the Andes (Mallín Vaca Lauquen, Neuquén Province, Argentina, latitude 36° 51.336′ S, longitude 71° 02.538′ W). Between 16 000 and 14 800 cal. a BP, scrub steppe with substantial open ground expanded in formerly glaciated valleys, whereas Nothofagus – Prumnopitys a...

We developed the landscape age‐class demographics simulator ( LADS) to model historical variability in the amount of old‐growth and late‐successional forest in the Oregon Coast Range over the past 3,000 years. The model simulated temporal and spatial patterns of forest fires along with the resulting fluctuations in the distribution of forest age classes across the landscape. Parameters describing historical fire regimes were d...