Fire ecology

This course explores the role of fire as a natural disturbance in ecosystems. It introduces the concept of a fire regime and its influence on the type and distribution of organisms that occur in fire prone ecosystems. It also looks at some of the adaptations of plants that have evolved in these ecosystems and how animals either avoid or exploit the consequences of fire as a natural disturbance. Finally it examines how fire can increase biodiversity by generating a mosaic of habitats within an ecosystem and briefly addresses some of the consequences of climate change and global warming on the intensity and frequency of fires.

• Introduction
• Learning outcomes
• 1 Fire as a natural disturbance
• 1 Fire as a natural disturbance
• 1.1 The effects of fire on an ecosystem
• 1.2 Fire dependant ecosystems
• 1.3 Fire regimes
• 1.4 Fire severity
• 1.5 Fire frequency
• 2 Adaptation of plants in fire-prone ecosystems
• 2 Adaptation of plants in fire-prone ecosystems
• 2.1 Thick bark
• 2.2 Sprouting from insulated buds
• 2.3 Fire-stimulated seed release
• 2.4 Fire-stimulated seed germination from seed banks
• 2.5 Fire-stimulated flowering
• 3 The response of animals to fire
• 3 The response of animals to fire
• 3.1 Avoiding fire
• 3.2 Benefitting from fire
• 3.3 Morphological traits for detecting fire
• 4 Fire, habitat complexity and biodiversity
• 4 Fire, habitat complexity and biodiversity
• 4.1 Fire and ecological succession
• 4.2 The intermediate disturbance hypothesis
• 4.3 The pyrodiversity-biodiversity hypothesis
• 5 Climate change and fire ecology
• 5 Climate change and fire ecology
• Conclusion
• Glossary
• References
• Acknowledgements