The December 2013 issue of Fire Ecology, issue 9(3), is now available for viewing and downloading on the AFE website.  We continue our publication of classic fire ecology articles with H.H. Chapman's Is the longleaf type a climax?, first published in Ecology in 1932, with an introduction by Professor Brian Oswald.  Next up is a forum article that is quite topical given the recent wildfires around Sydney, Australia: Jurskis and Underwood's Human fires and wildfires on Sydney sandstones: history informs management.

These are followed by one short communication and six research articles ranging in topic from grassland to forest.  Evans and others show that mid-summer fires can affect the abundance of economically important insects.  Kuljian and Varner demonstrate in laboratory tests how sudden oak death affects foliar moisture, ignition, and consumption of tanoak foliage.  Coughlan argues that unauthorized fires in Georgia, USA, potentially contribute to the maintenance of landscapes adapted to frequent, dormant-season, and early growing-season fire regimes.  Reemts and Hansen evaluate short-term effects of repeated wildfires in oak-juniper woodlands in Texas, USA.  Weir and Limb show seasonal variation in flammability of the leaf litter of two oak species of the Cross Timbers region of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas, USA.  The final research paper is by Strong and others looking at fire effects on the native bunchgrass purple threeawn.

Finally, we present a review by Cansler and Larson of the Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment's special online, free access issue on prescribed burning around the world.  Fire Ecology is continuing to include abstracts in both English and Spanish for all research articles.