TUM Audimax

🌐 Language: English ♿ Wheelchair accessible 💶 Event is free of charge and open to the public 🎟️ Hosted by: TUM Environmental Lecture Series The Environmental Lecture Series is an interdisciplinary, public lecture series organized by the Environmental Department of the Student Representation of the Technical University of Munich. It is organized by TUM students on a voluntary basis. Speakers have been giving lectures on sustainability since 1985. This includes, for example, technical environmental protection, health, consumer, and climate protection. In this way, it offers students and teachers at the Technical University of Munich, as well as the non-university public, the opportunity to learn about and discuss these topics and research findings at a scientific level. Every lecture lasts 45 minutes, followed by a 15-minute Q&A, and ends with a 30-minute Engagement Lab (interactive part). Throughout the lecture series "Burn, Baby, Burn: Fueling the Climate Crisis" , interactive discussions will create space to reflect on energy transitions, resilience, and accountability, and to ask what it takes to cool down a planet that keeps heating up. Title of the talk and content: Climate Change and Fire Ecology in Florida: Prescribed Fire, Wildfire, and the Future of Fire-Adapted Ecosystems Fire has shaped Florida’s landscapes for thousands of years, maintaining the ecological structure and biodiversity of Florida’s forests. The resilience of many of these fire-adapted ecosystems, including the longleaf pine savannas, flatwoods, and scrub habitats, relies on particular fire intervals associated with their needs. With climate change altering the environmental conditions under which fire occurs, there are wide-ranging implications for impacts on fire behavior, increased wildfire risk, and it makes prescribed burning for ecosystem health much more difficult to implement. This talk will explore the ecological role of fire in Florida, highlighting the importance of prescribed burning as a management tool for maintaining biodiversity and reducing hazardous fuel accumulation, while supporting overall ecosystem resilience. It will also examine how changing temperature and precipitation patterns have caused increasing droughts that influence wildfire activity and complicate prescribed fire management. Particular attention will be given to the balance between the ecological benefits of fire and the risks posed by increasingly challenging fire-weather conditions, as well as the role of land managers in adapting fire practices to a changing climate. By integrating principles of fire ecology, climate science, and land management, this talk will consider strategies for sustaining Florida’s fire-adapted ecosystems while reducing wildfire threats and supporting long-term ecological resilience. About this week's speaker: Alexander Fine is a Park Service Specialist with the Florida Forest Service at Goethe State Forest near Dunnellon, Florida. His work encompasses a variety of forestry and land management activities, including prescribed fire operations and wildfire response. He is also a graduate student at the University of Florida, where he is pursuing a Master of Science in Forest Resources and Conservation with a concentration in Ecological Restoration. His graduate studies are complemented by certificates in Forest Health and Resilience and Natural Resource Policy and Administration. He has also completed the Certificate in Natural Areas Management through the University of Florida’s Natural Areas Training Academy and the Florida Forest Service’s Certified Prescribed Burn Manager Training. Please note that photographs and video recordings will be taken during the event for documentation, reporting, and public communication purposes; for online events, this includes recordings of the session and screenshots of the session. If you do not wish to be included in such recordings, please let us know on-site or, for online events, at the start of the session (e.g., via chat) – you are also welcome to keep your camera switched off. We will take this into consideration. https://www.munichclimateweek.com/de/event-calendar/event/burn-baby-burn-fueling-the-climate-crisis-tum-environmental-evt-ww0pztrspb84sup