The relative importance of fuel, topography, and weather on fire spread varies at different spatial scales, but how the relative importance of these controls respond to changing spatial scales is poorly understood. We designed a "moving window" resampling technique that allowed us to quantify the relative importance of controls on fire spread at continuous spatial scales using boosted regressio...

The ignition of low-intensity fires in the dormant season in the pine stands of north-western Portugal seeks to reduce the existing fuel hazard without compromising site quality. The purpose of this study is to characterise this practice and assess its effectiveness, based on information resulting from the normal monitoring process at the management level, and using operational guidelines, fire...

r.-Previous research has found that exposure to fire-related cues enhances germination of some plant species, and such species may exist in frequent-fire southwestern United States Pinus ponderosa forests. I performed four greenhouse experiments with Penstemon barbatus, a perennial forb common in P ponderosa forests, testing seed responses to liquid and air smoke, charred P ponderosa wood and l...

UNLABELLED Fire, herbivory and their interaction influence plant community dynamics. However, little is known about the influence of prefire herbivory on postfire plant community response, particularly long-term resistance to postfire exotic plant invasion in areas that historically experienced limited large herbivore pressure and infrequent, periodic fires.We investigated the long-term postfir...

Zagros forests are one of the important natural ecosystems in Iran with high plant diversity and variety of plant communities. In recent decades, fire events have frequently occurred in some of these ecosystems. The purpose of this research is to investigate the composition and diversity of herbaceous species after nine years of fire occurrence in the forests of Zagros in western Iran. For this...

1. Bark is a vital and very visible part of woody plants, yet only recently has bark characteristics started to be considered as key traits structuring communities and biomes. Bark thickness is very variable among woody plants, and I hypothesize that fire is a key factor selecting for a thick bark, and thus, at the global scale, a significant proportion of the variability in bark thickness is e...

Pinus-Juniperus L. (Piñon-juniper) woodlands of the western United States have expanded in area nearly 10-fold since the late 1800's. Juniperus occidentalis ssp. occidentalis Hook. (western juniper) dominance in sagebrush steppe has several negative consequences, including reductions in herbaceous production and diversity, decreased wildlife habitat, and higher erosion and runoff potentials. Pr...

BACKGROUND Forecasting the effects of global changes on high altitude ecosystems requires an understanding of the long-term relationships between biota and forcing factors to identify resilience thresholds. Fire is a crucial forcing factor: both fuel build-up from land-abandonment in European mountains, and more droughts linked to global warming are likely to increase fire risks. METHODS To a...

Traditionally, most vegetation patterns were thought to be driven by environmental conditions (Holdridge 1947; Whittaker 1975). The role of animals in determining patterns of vegetation has also long been recognized (Hairston et al. 1960; Terborgh et al. 2006), given that herbivores consume vegetation and, in turn, are controlled by carnivores and parasites. There is an increasing volume of lit...

Herbivory and fire are natural interacting forces contributing to the maintenance of rangeland ecosystems. Wildfires in the sagebrush dominated ecosystems of the Great Basin are becoming larger and more frequent, and may dramatically alter plant communities and habitat. This synthesis describes what is currently known about the cumulative impacts of historic livestock grazing patterns and short...