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Topic · Global and Planetary Change

Fire effects on ecosystems

Fire effects on ecosystems is a research topic within Global and Planetary Change. Science Explorer counts 40k research works in it since 1950. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the impact of climate change on forest wildfires, including the increase in wildfire activity, global fire emissions, fire regimes, and the resilience of ecosystems. It also delves into the effects of wildfires on soil properties, carbon loss, and the use of remote sensing for monitoring and assessment.

  • Climate Change
  • Forest Fires
  • Wildfire Activity
  • Global Emissions
  • Fire Regimes
  • Boreal Forests
  • Soil Properties
  • Ecosystem Resilience
  • Carbon Loss
  • Remote Sensing
Research works
40k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
4k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+23%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
36% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Fire effects on ecosystems

Which countries lead Fire effects on ecosystems research?

By volume, the United States and China publish the most (2.7k and 1.8k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 2.7k works
  2. 2 China 1.8k works
  3. 3 Canada 515 works
  4. 4 India 484 works
  5. 5 Australia 444 works
  6. 6 Russia 424 works
  7. 7 United Kingdom 311 works
  8. 8 Spain 301 works
  9. 9 Brazil 281 works
  10. 10 France 233 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 36.1%China: 23.8%Canada: 6.9%India: 6.5%6 others listed: 26.7%36%largest
United States2,699 · 36.1%China1,781 · 23.8%Canada515 · 6.9%India484 · 6.5%6 others listed1,996 · 26.7%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Fire effects on ecosystems research?

By volume in 2022-now, United States Department of Agriculture publishes the most Fire effects on ecosystems research, followed by Chinese Academy of Sciences and Russian Academy of Sciences.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States Department of AgricultureUnited States 238 works
  2. 2 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 168 works
  3. 3 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 158 works
  4. 4 United States Geological SurveyUnited States 92 works
  5. 5 Natural Resources CanadaCanada 76 works
  6. 6 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 73 works
  7. 7 Colorado State UniversityUnited States 57 works
  8. 8 Northeast Forestry UniversityChina 53 works
  9. 9 University of Science and Technology of ChinaChina 52 works
  10. 10 Oregon State UniversityUnited States 49 works

Who are the leading researchers in Fire effects on ecosystems?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Fire effects on ecosystems include Rob Knight, Mark A. Bradford and Lídia Morawska.

  1. 1 Rob Knight United States 468k citations
  2. 2 Mark A. Bradford United States 268k citations
  3. 3 Lídia Morawska Australia 244k citations
  4. 4 Philippe Ciais France 237k citations
  5. 5 Ziad Ahmed Memish Saudi Arabia 224k citations
  6. 6 Kai You Wang China 224k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Fire effects on ecosystems?

The most cited paper in Fire effects on ecosystems is "A globally coherent fingerprint of climate change impacts across natural systems" (Camille Parmesan, Gary Yohe, 2003), with 11,364 citations. Next come "A global overview of drought and heat-induced tree mortality reveals emerging climate change risks for forests" (7,876) and "Warming and Earlier Spring Increase Western U.S. Forest Wildfire Activity" (5,311).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 A globally coherent fingerprint of climate change impacts across natural systems Camille Parmesan, Gary Yohe · Nature 2003 11,364
2 A global overview of drought and heat-induced tree mortality reveals emerging climate change risks for forests Craig D. Allen, Alison K. Macalady, Haroun Chenchouni et al. · Forest Ecology and Management Open access 22 Oct 2009 7,876
3 Warming and Earlier Spring Increase Western U.S. Forest Wildfire Activity A. L. Westerling, Hugo G. Hidalgo, Daniel R. Cayan et al. · Science Open access 6 Jul 2006 5,311
4 Climate Extremes: Observations, Modeling, and Impacts David R. Easterling, Gerald A. Meehl, Camille Parmesan et al. · Science 22 Sep 2000 4,969
5 Bulk Parameterization of the Snow Field in a Cloud Model Yuh‐Lang Lin, Richard D. Farley, Harold D. Orville · Journal of Climate and Applied Meteorology Jun 1983 3,627
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Fire effects on ecosystems research done?

The largest centres of Fire effects on ecosystems research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Washington D.C. (United States), Ottawa (Canada) and Chengdu (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Asheville and Missoula.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 468 works
  2. 2 Washington D.C.United States 168 works
  3. 3 OttawaCanada 118 works
  4. 4 ChengduChina 113 works
  5. 5 MoscowRussia 113 works
  6. 6 NanjingChina 109 works
  7. 7 Fort CollinsUnited States 107 works
  8. 8 MelbourneAustralia 91 works
  9. 9 ParisFrance 77 works
  10. 10 CanberraAustralia 77 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. AshevilleUS · 23.3 works43×
  2. MissoulaUS · 31.3 works28×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Fire effects on ecosystems than the world average.

See Fire effects on ecosystems on the map

Where is the best place to study Fire effects on ecosystems?

Among universities, judged by research, Nanjing Forestry University, China University of Geosciences and University of Colorado Boulder score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 17.28%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Nanjing Forestry Uni…China University of …University of Colora…Australian National …
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Nanjing Forestry UniversityChina 75.031.5%5.1×21 +234.6%
2China University of GeosciencesChina 74.224.3%5.6×23 +300.3%
3University of Colorado BoulderUnited States 71.915.7%9.0×38 +13.1%
4Australian National UniversityAustralia 69.313.1%7.4×35 +30.0%
5University of LisbonPortugal 69.011.5%5.8×42 +31.4%
6University of California, IrvineUnited States 68.824.4%2.9×17 +34.4%
7University of California, MercedUnited States 67.721.8%18.6×17 +31.8%
8University of British ColumbiaCanada 66.010.9%4.1×46 +29.4%
9University of Science and Technology of ChinaChina 65.69.9%4.8×52 +18.7%
10Colorado State UniversityUnited States 64.89.7%17.5×57 +6.5%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Fire effects on ecosystems, country by country

Is Fire effects on ecosystems research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 23% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Fire effects on ecosystems.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Fire effects on ecosystems as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.043% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%Fire effects on ecosystems0.043% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Fire effects on ecosystems over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Fire effects on ecosystems10.0% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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