Jamaica: A Last Island Frontier

Anthropogenic climate change is leading to longer, more severe fire seasons in the tropics. These effects are more acute in insular environments, such as the Caribbean islands, resulting in increased costs of fire control, management, and fire-related damages. To develop effective fire management strategies, accurate ecological forecasting of long-term vegetation and fire-response to climate and human-caused disturbance is necessary.

This research examines the long-term impacts of natural and anthropogenic disturbance regimes in Jamaica, one of the last frontiers of human settlement.

Jamaica provides an ideal case study to assess natural drivers of fire and the impact of abrupt changes in human disturbance regimes associated with pre-Columbian settlement and later European colonization.