A defining feature of both the Anthropocene concept and the new discipline of pyrogeography is combustion of carbon-rich fuels by humans. A key objective of pyrogeography is understanding to what degree landscape fires set by hominins has overwritten natural fires through geological time, and whether these changes had substantial ecological knock-on effects. This research is essential to precisely define the onset of the Anthropocene. Nonetheless, the commonly used imprecise definition that the Anthropocene commenced at 1780 is a useful organising principle for pyrogeography because it provides a framework to understand the synergistic effects of anthropogenic global environment changes in shaping global fire activity following the Industrial Revolution.
BeerlingDJOsborneCP (2006) The origin of the savanna biome. Global Change Biology12(11): 2023–2031.
2.
BondWJScottAC (2010) Fire and the spread of flowering plants in the Cretaceous. New Phytologist188(4): 1137–1150.
3.
BowmanDBalchJKArtaxoP. (2009) Fire in the Earth System. Science324(5926): 481–484.
4.
BowmanDMJSBalchJArtaxoP. (2011) The human dimension of fire regimes on Earth. Journal of Biogeography38(12): 2223–2236.
5.
BowmanDMJSO’BrienJAGoldammerJG (2013) Pyrogeography and the global quest for sustainable fire management. Annual Review of Environment and Resources38(1): 57–80.
6.
ChinAFuRHarborJ. (2013) Anthropocene: Human interactions with earth systems. Anthropocene1(0): 1–2.
7.
CoughlanMRPettyAM (2013) Fire as a dimension of historical ecology: A response to Bowman et al. (2011). Journal of Biogeography40(5): 1010–1012.
8.
CrutzenPJ (2002) Geology of mankind. Nature415(6867): 23–23.
9.
FoleySFGronenbornDAndreaeMO. (2013) The Palaeoanthropocene – The beginnings of anthropogenic environmental change. Anthropocene3(0): 83–88.
10.
GillJLWilliamsJWJacksonST. (2009) Pleistocene megafaunal collapse, novel plant communities, and enhanced fire regimes in North America. Science326(5956): 1100–1103.
11.
GliksonA (2013) Fire and human evolution: The deep-time blueprints of the Anthropocene. Anthropocene3(0): 89–92.
12.
KeeleyJERundelPW (2005) Fire and the Miocene expansion of C4 grasslands. Ecology Letters8(7): 683–690.
13.
McWethyDBWhitlockCWilmshurstJM. (2010) Rapid landscape transformation in South Island, New Zealand, following initial Polynesian settlement. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences107(50): 21,343–21,348.
14.
MalmAHornborgA (2014) The geology of mankind? A critique of the Anthropocene narrative. The Anthropocene Review1(1): 62–69.
15.
MarlonJRBartleinPJCarcailletC. (2008) Climate and human influences on global biomass burning over the past two millennia. Nature Geoscience1(10): 697–702.
16.
OldfieldFBarnoskyADDearingJ. (2014) The Anthropocene Review: Its significance, implications and the rationale for a new transdisciplinary journal. The Anthropocene Review1(1): 3–7.
17.
PyneSJ (2001) Fire: A Brief History. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.
18.
RoosCIBowmanDMJSBalchJK. (2014) Pyrogeography, historical ecology, and the human dimensions of fire regimes. Journal of Biogeography41(4): 833–836.
19.
RuddimanWF (2005) Plows, Plagues and Petroleum: How Humans Took Control of Climate. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
20.
RuddimanWF (2007) The early anthropogenic hypothesis: Challenges and responses. Reviews of Geophysics45(4): RG4001.
21.
RuleSBrookBWHaberleSG. (2012) The aftermath of megafaunal extinction: Ecosystem transformation in Pleistocene Australia. Science335(6075): 1483–1486.
22.
ScottAC (2000) The Pre-Quaternary history of fire. Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology164(1–4): 281–329.
23.
TurnerBL (2002) Contested identities: Human-environment geography and disciplinary implications in a restructuring academy. Annals of the Association of American Geographers92(1): 52–74.
