Fighting fire with food: Assessing the flammability of crop plant species for building fire resilient agroforestry systems

Abstract

Abstract Climate change has increased drought and wildfire frequency in recent decades and poses a significant risk to agricultural lands and private property. Given the negative impact of fires on the livelihoods of farmers, it is crucial to assess the flammability of crop species and find ways of mitigating risk of fire in agricultural lands. We quantify the flammability of 66 tropical species of fiber, food, and spice crops by assessing maximum temperature, burn time, and burned biomass and assessed key leaf traits from a subset of these species to look at the interaction of leaf area (LA) and leaf dry matter content (LDMC) with life form type. We found groundcover, shrubs, and vines to be generally less flammable than canopy and subcanopy plants. We also found LDMC to be a consistent and significant predictor of all three flammability measures regardless of plant life form. Our results equips farmers and policy makers with information for constructing more fire resilient agricultural landscapes and pursuing nature-based solutions to mitigate fire risk, such as by planting green firebreaks with fire retardant species.