Wildfires can kill people, destroy infrastructure and impose significant impacts on biodiversity – including, in extreme cases, extinction. Decision makers must make fateful choices during emergencies about what to try to protect. Conventionally, biodiversity assets are rated relatively low in such decision-making. We argue that this should not be the case.

To aid in the preparation for increasing wildfire risks, the objective of this manuscript is to synthesise and assess the current state of knowledge and inform the broader community of researchers, managers, and the public about the multifaceted and geographically variable nature of the ongoing wildfire challenges in California.

Peatlands in Australia are vulnerable to climate-driven degradation. One peatland experienced a loss of 3.46 t of carbon in the 3 months following fire and rain events. Fire and erosion potentially increase peatland nutrient exports. Ground studies are required to develop and verify landscape-scale carbon budgets.

The widespread impacts on terrestrial and aquatic environments after wildfires is an important and understudied area of research. Following a large wildfire in British Columbia, this study found elevated concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, potentially toxic compounds, in burned soils and sediments in an ecologically important and sensitive river system.

Urban exotic plants were less flammable than wildland and urban native plants at the wildland–urban interface of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, eastern Australia. Shoot traits including fuel moisture, bulk density and volume were significant drivers of variation in shoot flammability.

Correlations of flame length with fireline intensity have suggested that the depth of the flaming zone could be neglected. New laboratory experiments are reported showing flame zone depth substantially reduces measured flame length. This occurs because entrainment and combustion are greater within deep flame zones compared to the original theory.

We compared three smoke modelling tools commonly used to plan prescribed burning projects (the Simple Smoke Screening Tool, VSmoke and HYSPLIT) by modelling smoke dispersion from a year of operational burns. The differences among the tools are significant and inconsistent. Tool improvements and clear guidelines for applying predictions are needed.