Megafires Under Climate Change: A Review of Research Advances

With climate change, the global risk of large-scale high-intensity forest fires will constantly increase. This review focuses on the concept, occurrence, formation mechanisms, ecological impacts, and research methods of large-scale, high-intensity forest fires. It reveals that definitions of "large scale" and "high intensity" remain diverse and context-dependent. Large-scale and high-intensity forest fires are distinct from ordinary forest fires; climate change mainly affects fires by intensifying extreme weather conditions such as high temperatures, droughts, and strong winds, while also changing the characteristics of combustibles to drive frequent and extreme fire occurrences and evolution; based on fire risk assessment, including empirical models, physical models, and artificial intelligence models, fire behavior prediction technologies have been developed. These fires exert a profound impact on the global carbon cycle and the long-term resilience of ecosystems. Future efforts should be placed on integrated three-dimensional monitoring of "air - sky - ground - human", multi-source data fusion-based early warning, and comprehensive management of combustible materials. The findings can serve as a reference for constructing an accurate early-warning and comprehensive prevention-and-control system for forest fire risks that is adapted to climate change.