Fire behaviour research has largely focused on dry ecosystems that burn frequently, with far less attention on wetter forests. Yet, the impacts of fire in wet forests can be high and therefore understanding the drivers of fire in these systems is vital. We sought to identify and rank by importance the factors plausibly driving flammability in wet eucalypt forests, and describe relationships between them. In doing so, we formulated a set of research priorities. Conceptual models of forest flammability in wet eucalypt forests were elicited from 21 fire experts using a combination of elicitation techniques. Forest flammability was defined using fire occurrence and fireline intensity as measures of ignitability and heat release rate, respectively. There were shared and divergent opinions about the drivers of flammability in wet eucalypt forests. Widely agreed factors were drought, dead fine fuel moisture content, weather and topography. These factors all influence the availability of biomass to burn, albeit their effects and interactions on various dimensions of flammability are poorly understood. Differences between the models related to lesser understood factors (e.g. live and coarse fuel moisture, plant traits, heatwaves) and the links between factors. By documenting alternative conceptual models, we made shared and divergent opinions explicit about flammability in wet forests. We identified four priority research areas: (1) quantifying drought and fuel moisture thresholds for fire occurrence and intensity, (2) modelling microclimate in dense vegetation and rugged terrain, (3) determining the attributes of live vegetation that influence forest flammability, (4) evaluating fire management strategies.

中文翻译：

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使用专家推导的概念模型探索湿桉树林中森林可燃性的关键驱动因素

火灾行为研究主要集中在频繁燃烧的干燥生态系统上，而很少关注较湿的森林。然而，潮湿森林中火灾的影响可能很大，因此了解这些系统中火灾的驱动因素至关重要。我们试图确定可能导致湿桉树林可燃性的因素的重要性并对其进行排序，并描述它们之间的关系。为此，我们制定了一系列研究重点。湿桉树林中森林可燃性的概念模型是从 21 位火灾专家使用诱导技术组合得出的。森林可燃性是使用火灾发生率和火线强度分别作为可燃性和热释放率的量度来定义的。关于湿桉树林中可燃性的驱动因素，存在共同和不同的意见。广泛认同的因素是干旱、枯死细燃料含水量、天气和地形。这些因素都会影响生物质燃烧的可用性，尽管它们对可燃性各个维度的影响和相互作用知之甚少。模型之间的差异与不太了解的因素（例如活燃料和粗燃料水分、植物性状、热浪）以及因素之间的联系有关。通过记录替代概念模型，我们明确了关于湿森林可燃性的共享和不同意见。我们确定了四个优先研究领域：(1) 量化干旱和燃料湿度阈值对火灾发生和强度的影响，(2) 模拟茂密植被和崎岖地形中的小气候，(3) 确定影响森林可燃性的活植被的属性，