Fire as a fundamental ecological process: Research advances and frontiers

Fire is a powerful ecological and evolutionary force that regulates organismal traits, population sizes, species interactions, community composition, carbon and nutrient cycling and ecosystem function. It also presents a rapidly growing societal challenge, due to both increasingly destructive wildfi...

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Published in:The Journal of ecology Vol. 108; no. 5; pp. 2047 - 2069
Main Authors: McLauchlan, Kendra K., Higuera, Philip E., Miesel, Jessica, Rogers, Brendan M., Schweitzer, Jennifer, Shuman, Jacquelyn K., Tepley, Alan J., Varner, J. Morgan, Veblen, Thomas T., Adalsteinsson, Solny A., Balch, Jennifer K., Baker, Patrick, Batllori, Enric, Bigio, Erica, Brando, Paulo, Cattau, Megan, Chipman, Melissa L., Coen, Janice, Crandall, Raelene, Daniels, Lori, Enright, Neal, Gross, Wendy S., Harvey, Brian J., Hatten, Jeff A., Hermann, Sharon, Hewitt, Rebecca E., Kobziar, Leda N., Landesmann, Jennifer B., Loranty, Michael M., Maezumi, S. Yoshi, Mearns, Linda, Moritz, Max, Myers, Jonathan A., Pausas, Juli G., Pellegrini, Adam F. A., Platt, William J., Roozeboom, Jennifer, Safford, Hugh, Santos, Fernanda, Scheller, Robert M., Sherriff, Rosemary L., Smith, Kevin G., Smith, Melinda D., Watts, Adam C., Durigan, Giselda
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.09.2020
Wiley
Subjects:
Biological activity
Biological evolution
carbon
Carbon cycle
climate
Community composition
community structure
Earth System models
Ecological effects
Ecological function
Ecology
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
fire behavior
fire regime
Fires
fuels
geophysics
Modelling
Nutrient cycles
plant traits
prescribed fire
vegetation
wildfire
Wildfires
ISSN:0022-0477, 1365-2745
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Fire is a powerful ecological and evolutionary force that regulates organismal traits, population sizes, species interactions, community composition, carbon and nutrient cycling and ecosystem function. It also presents a rapidly growing societal challenge, due to both increasingly destructive wildfires and fire exclusion in fire‐dependent ecosystems. As an ecological process, fire integrates complex feedbacks among biological, social and geophysical processes, requiring coordination across several fields and scales of study. Here, we describe the diversity of ways in which fire operates as a fundamental ecological and evolutionary process on Earth. We explore research priorities in six categories of fire ecology: (a) characteristics of fire regimes, (b) changing fire regimes, (c) fire effects on above‐ground ecology, (d) fire effects on below‐ground ecology, (e) fire behaviour and (f) fire ecology modelling. We identify three emergent themes: the need to study fire across temporal scales, to assess the mechanisms underlying a variety of ecological feedbacks involving fire and to improve representation of fire in a range of modelling contexts. Synthesis: As fire regimes and our relationships with fire continue to change, prioritizing these research areas will facilitate understanding of the ecological causes and consequences of future fires and rethinking fire management alternatives. We describe the diversity of ways in which fire operates as a fundamental ecological and evolutionary process on Earth. We explore research priorities in six categories of fire ecology. We identify three needs: to study fire across temporal scales, to assess the mechanisms underlying a variety of ecological feedbacks involving fire and to improve representation of fire in modeling contexts.
Bibliography:The authors of this paper comprise the Future of Fire Consortium.
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USDOE
AC05-00OR22725; 1743681
Division of Environmental Biology
ISSN:0022-0477
1365-2745
DOI:10.1111/1365-2745.13403