Introduction Many people that read this chapter may be aware of mammals, birds, and maybe even plant species that are common at Pt. Reyes, and may have witnessed or have been aware of the ways that these organisms responded to the Mt. Vision fire of 1995. Few will be familiar with fungal species at Pt. Reyes, and even fewer may have noticed their response to the fire. This is unfortunate, becau...

Pyrogenic plants dominate many fire-prone ecosystems. Their prevalence suggests some advantage to their enhanced flammability, but researchers have had difficulty tying pyrogenicity to individual-level advantages. Based on our review, we propose that enhanced flammability in fire-prone ecosystems should protect the belowground organs and nearby propagules of certain individual plants during fir...

Recurrent fires impose a strong selection pressure in many ecosystems worldwide. In such ecosystems, plant flammability is of paramount importance because it enhances population persistence, particularly in non-resprouting species. Indeed, there is evidence of phenotypic divergence of flammability under different fire regimes. Our general hypothesis is that flammability-enhancing traits are ada...

Despite the importance of fire and herbivory in structuring savanna systems, few replicated experiments have examined the interactive effects of herbivory and fire on plant dynamics. In addition, the effects of fire on associated ant-tree mutualisms have been largely unexplored. We carried out small controlled burns in each of 18 herbivore treatment plots of the Kenya Long-term Exclosure Experi...

Bark is the outermost covering of stems in woody plants and plays a fundamental protective role. Recently I hypothesized that ‘at the global scale, a significant proportion of the variability in bark thickness is explained by the variability in fire regimes’, and specifically predicted that frequent low intensity fires select for thick bark (Pausas, 2015). In addition, I suggested that differen...

• Natural and human-caused wildfires have long shaped North American landscapes. • A national focus on reducing fire fuels is opening a door for targeted grazing. • Targeted grazing typically tackles four fire fuel types – grass, shrub, slash, and timber. • Knowledge of fuel characteristics and species foraging habits lays the groundwork for developing grazing prescriptions. • Ecological object...

Wildfires are one of the major disturbances in the dynamics of forests and shrublands. However, little is known about their effects on insect communities that contribute to faunal biodiversity and play key roles in the ecosystem's dynamics. An intense and widespread fire occurred in 1999 in the Nahuel Huapi National Park in the Andean forest in northern Patagonia, Argentina. This fire affected ...

This circular provides an overview of the use of fire in grassland management. It describes the history and importance of fire in the grassland ecosystem, how plants respond to fire, and the uses and potential benefits of prescribed fire. It also summarizes fire planning and legal and safety considerations. And finally, it provides guidance on some special uses of fire. when burning conditions ...

Concerns about the effects of fire on ecologically sensitive habitats have limited the use of prescribed fire in the management of forest riparian areas. Using a beyond-BACI (Before-After-Control-Impact) experimental design, we examined the effects of a 26-ha prescribed fire that burned upland and riparian areas of a first-order watershed, and compared this to five unburned sites examined from ...

The seed bank dynamics of the three co-occurring obligate-seeder (i.e. fire-sensitive) Proteaceae species, Banksia ericifolia, Banksia marginata and Petrophile pulchella, were examined at sites of varying time since the most recent fire (i.e. plant age) in the Sydney region. Significant variation among species was found in the number of cones produced, the position of the cones within the canop...