摘要：In the French Mediterranean, large fires have significant socioeconomic andenvironmental impacts. We used a long-term georeferenced fire time series(1958–2017) to analyze both spatial and temporal distributions of largefires (LFs; ≥100 ha). The region was impacted in some locations up tosixtimes by recurrent LFs and 21 % of the total area burned by LFs occurred ona surface that previously burned in the past, with potential impact onforest resilience. We found contrasting patterns between the east and thewest of the study area, the former experiencing fewer LFs but of a largerextent compared to the latter, with an average time of occurrence between LFsexceeding 4000 ha < 7 years mostly in the eastern coastal area and> 50 years in the west. This longitudinal gradient in LF returnlevel contrasts with what we would expect from mean fire weather conditionsstrongly decreasing eastwards during the fire season but is consistent withlarger fuel cover in the east, highlighting the strong role of fuelcontinuity in fire spread. Additionally, our analysis confirms the sharpdecrease in both LF frequency and burned area in the early 1990s, due to theefficiency of fire suppression and prevention reinforced at that time,thereby weakening the functional climate–fire relationship across theregion.
