Background: Fire is a multifaceted force. Fire activity and risk of fire incidence across US forested ecosystems have accelerated over the last two decades. At the same time, human land-use choices and climate change interacted with fire, in an era we are called to meet specific sustainability goals of reducing CO2 emissions and protecting biodiversity, ecosystems, and their resources. To understand the development of the traits and functions of organisms, and the processes and drivers of natural and human-induced events that cause fire, it is essential to study the fire ecology in the context of human land-use history in the forested ecoregions of the USA.

Results: This book is a research synthesis of the fire ecology in the US forest ecosystems at the regional level. Two main pillars are analyzed across all ecoregions and forest types covered in the book, the drivers and linkages that form fire history and interactions initiated by recurring fire events, and the interdependence of fire with the forest ecosystem dynamics and humans.

Conclusions: The research, policy, and management tools available for managing fire as a disturbance and as prevention and mitigation treatment need cross-boundary revision. It is fundamental to realize the precise role of fire at present and to redefine the role of fire in the short and long term. This book is an invitation to change our perspective and methods towards these directions.