Pathways framework identifies wildfire impacts on agriculture

Wildfires are a growing concern to society and the environment in many parts of the world. Within the United States, the land area burned by wildfires has steadily increased over the past 40 years. Agricultural land management is widely understood as a force that alters fire regimes, but less is known about how wildfires, in turn, impact the agriculture sector. Based on an extensive literature review, we identify three pathways of impact—direct, downwind and downstream—through which wildfires influence agricultural resources (soil, water, air and photosynthetically active radiation), labour (agricultural workers) and products (crops and livestock). Through our pathways framework, we highlight the complexity of wildfire–agriculture interactions and the need for collaborative, systems-oriented research to better quantify the magnitude of wildfire impacts and inform the adaptation of agricultural systems to an increasingly fire-prone future.