Fire and plant diversity at the global scale
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Abstract Aim Understanding the drivers of global diversity has challenged ecologists for decades. Drivers related to the environment, productivity and heterogeneity are considered primary factors, whereas disturbance has received less attention. Given that fire is a global factor that has been affecting many regions around the world over geological time scales, we hypothesize that the fire regime should explain a significant proportion of global coarse‐scale plant diversity. Location All terrestrial ecosystems, excluding Antarctica. Time period Data collected throughout the late 20th and early 21st century. Taxa Seed plants (= spermatophytes = phanerogamae). Methods We used available global plant diversity information at the ecoregion scale and compiled productivity, heterogeneity and fire information for each ecoregion using 15 years of remotely sensed data. We regressed plant diversity against environmental variables; thereafter, we tested whether fire activity still explained a significant proportion of the variance. Results Ecoregional plant diversity was positively related to both productivity ( R 2 = .30) and fire activity ( R 2 = .38). Once productivity and other environmental variables were in the model ( R 2 = .50), fire regime still explained a significant proportion of the variability in plant diversity (overall model, R 2 = .71). The results suggest that fire drives temporal and spatial variability in many ecosystems, providing opportunities for a diversity of plants. Main conclusions Fire regime is a primary factor explaining plant diversity around the globe, even after accounting for productivity. Fires delay competitive exclusion, increase landscape heterogeneity and generate new niches; thus, they provide opportunities for a large variety of species. Consequently, fire regime should be considered in order to understand global ecosystem distribution and diversity.
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Vegetation structure, microclimate and plant flammability vary along post-fire succession sequences, and these characteristics interact with climate and weather to influence fire regimes and the persistence of different vegetation types.
“Vegetation structure, microclimate and plant flammability vary along post-fire succession sequences, and these characteristics interact with climate and weather to influence fire regimes and the persistence of different vegetation types (Pausas et al., 2017;Platt et al., 2016;Varner, Kane, Kreye, & Engber, 2015).”
From Fire as a fundamental ecological process: Research advances and frontiers (2020) · cites this paper as Pausas et al., 2017
Cites
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Self-citationFire as an evolutionary pressure shaping plant traits
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Self-citationIntegrative modelling reveals mechanisms linking productivity and plant species richness
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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
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- Authors
- Pausas, J. G., & Ribeiro, E.
- Affiliations
- Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (ES)
- ISRIC - World Soil Information (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Pausas, Juli G.
- Venue
- Global Ecology and Biogeography
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2017-05-25
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 889-897
- ISSN
- 1466-822X (ISSN-L)
- 1466-8238
- OpenAlex
- W2617243980
- Cited by
- 185
- References
- 16
- Citations by year
- 2026: 25 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 22 · 2022: 28 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 9
- FWCI
- 10.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- research.wur.nl
- Locations
- Global Ecology and Biogeography (publishedVersion)
- Socio-Environmental Systems Modeling (acceptedVersion)
- DIGITAL.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)) (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (CGL2015‐64086‐P)
- Generalitat Valenciana (PROMETEO/2016/021)
- 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
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Botany and Plant Ecology Studies
- Keywords
- fire regimes, plant diversity, ecoregions, productivity, landscape heterogeneity, disturbance, seed plants, competitive exclusion, niche creation, terrestrial ecosystems
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