Gourt > Science > Biology > Ecology > Fire Ecology
INTRODUCTION
Fire ecology is the study of ecosystems impacted by fire. The discipline typically focuses on ecosystems with historical fire regimes that have shaped the composition and dynamics of ecological communities over evolutionary time scales, though now it has also become a sub-discipline of restoration ecology. Campaigns such as “Smokey Bear” in the USA have molded public opinion to believe that wildfires are always harmful to nature. This view is based on the outdated belief that ecosystems progress toward an equilibrium and that disturbance (such as fire) disrupts the harmony of nature. More recent ecological research has shown, however, that fire is an integral component to the function and biodiversity of many communities, and that the organisms within those communities have adapted to withstand and even exploit it. Fire suppression, in combination with other human-caused environmental changes, has resulted in unforeseen changes to ecosystem dynamics and species composition and has backfired to create some of the largest, most intense wildfires yet. Land managers are faced with tough questions about where it is appropriate to restore a fire regime and how to do it. These questions are crucial today as we see the consequences of years of fire suppression and the continued expansion of people into fire-adapted ecosystems.
COMPONENTS OF A FIRE REGIME
A fire regime describes the pattern that fire follows in a particular ecosystem. It consists of the following components (Bond and Keeley 2005): More on [ Fire ecology ]
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