Fire as a key driver of Earth's biodiversity
Abstract
Many terrestrial ecosystems are fire prone, such that their composition and structure are largely due to their fire regime. Regions subject to regular fire have exceptionally high levels of species richness and endemism, and fire has been proposed as a major driver of their diversity, within the context of climate, resource availability and environmental heterogeneity. However, current fire-management practices rarely take into account the ecological and evolutionary roles of fire in maintaining biodiversity. Here, we focus on the mechanisms that enable fire to act as a major ecological and evolutionary force that promotes and maintains biodiversity over numerous spatiotemporal scales. From an ecological perspective, the vegetation, topography and local weather conditions during a fire generate a landscape with spatial and temporal variation in fire-related patches (pyrodiversity), and these produce the biotic and environmental heterogeneity that drives biodiversity across local and regional scales. There have been few empirical tests of the proposition that 'pyrodiversity begets biodiversity' but we show that biodiversity should peak at moderately high levels of pyrodiversity. Overall species richness is greatest immediately after fire and declines monotonically over time, with postfire successional pathways dictated by animal habitat preferences and varying lifespans among resident plants. Theory and data support the 'intermediate disturbance hypothesis' when mean patch spe…
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Fire is a recurrent process that results in fire regimes with direct ecological effects and acts as a selective force shaping species traits throughout the histories of entire lineages.
“Fire is now recognized as a recurrent process, resulting in fire regimes that have direct ecological effects and act as selective forces by shaping species traits throughout the histories of entire lineages (He, Lamont, & Pausas, 2019;Simon et al., 2009).”
From Fire as a fundamental ecological process: Research advances and frontiers (2020) · cites this paper as He, Lamont, & Pausas, 2019
Cites
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Self-citationCHANGES IN BIRD ABUNDANCE AFTER WILDFIRE: IMPORTANCE OF FIRE SEVERITY AND TIME SINCE FIRE
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Fire as a fundamental ecological process: Research advances and frontiers
McLauchlan, K. K., Higuera, P. E., Miesel, J., Rogers, B. M., Schweitzer, J., Shuman, J. K., Tepley, A. J., Varner, J. M., Veblen, T. T., Adalsteinsson, S. A., et al. (2020) · Journal of Ecology · doi:10.1111/1365-2745.13403 · Cited by 729 · see citing works
“Fire is now recognized as a recurrent process, resulting in fire regimes that have direct ecological effects and act as selective forces by shaping species traits throughout the histories of entire lineages (He, Lamont, & Pausas, 2019; Simon et al., 2009).”
Self-citation
- Authors
- He, T., Lamont, B. B., & Pausas, J. G.
- Affiliations
- Murdoch University (AU)
- Curtin University (AU)
- Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (ES)
- Venue
- Biological Reviews
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2019-07-12
- Volume
- 94
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1983-2010
- ISSN
- 0006-3231 (ISSN-L)
- 1464-7931
- 1469-185X
- OpenAlex
- W2956384029
- Cited by
- 623
- References
- 14
- Citations by year
- 2026: 95 · 2025: 134 · 2024: 101 · 2023: 95 · 2022: 66 · 2021: 92 · 2020: 32 · 2019: 8
- FWCI
- 4.27
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- Biological reviews/Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Murdoch University Research Portal (submittedVersion)
- DIGITAL.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Australian Research Council (DP120103389)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Fire effects on ecosystems
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Rangeland and Wildlife Management
- Keywords
- fire regimes, biodiversity, pyrodiversity, intermediate disturbance hypothesis, fire-prone ecosystems, post-fire succession, species richness, endemism, fire adaptation, speciation, fire management, environmental heterogeneity, species coexistence
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Fires, Models, Biological, Biodiversity
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