Fifteen years of changes in fire ignition frequency in Sardinia (Italy). A rich-get-richer process
Humans have increasingly been affecting fire regimes through changes in the amount and distribution of ignition energy and fuel load. Within the context of global change, recent studies have shown that changes in demography and land use account for far more variability in shaping fire regimes than climatic variations. The objectives of this study are to analyze temporal trends in fire ignitions in selected land use/land cover (LULC) classes in Sardinia (Italy) over the years 2000–2015, and to assess the role of demographic dynamics from 1971 to 2011 over such changes.