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More importantly, fires have long-term effects on the post-burn environment. Fires in seldom-burned rainforests can cause disasters. For example, El Niño-induced surface fires in central Brazilian Amazonia have seriously affected the habitats of birds and primates. [22] Fires also expose animals to dangers such as humans or predators.
Fire ecology is a scientific discipline concerned with the effects of fire on natural ecosystems. [1] Many ecosystems, particularly prairie , savanna , chaparral and coniferous forests , have evolved with fire as an essential contributor to habitat vitality and renewal. [ 2 ]
The ecological theory of alternative stable states describes how different ecosystems can exist side by side, and how they can shift as a result of disturbance. Applied to fire ecology, the theory describes how flammable and less-flammable vegetation types can exist side by side, and are maintained by different relationships with fire. [3]
Fire regimes of United States plants. Savannas have regimes of a few years: blue, pink, and light green areas. When first encountered by Europeans, many ecosystems were the result of repeated fires every one to three years, resulting in the replacement of forests with grassland or savanna, or opening up the forest by removing undergrowth. [23]
Disturbance of a fire can clearly be seen by comparing the unburnt (left) and burnt (right) sides of the mountain range in South Africa. The veld ecosystem relies on periodic fire disturbances like these to rejuvenate itself. In ecology, a disturbance is a temporary change in environmental conditions that causes a pronounced change in an ecosystem.
Concurrently, the Archaic Indians began using fire in a widespread manner. Intentional burning of vegetation was taken up to mimic the effects of natural fires that tended to clear forest understories, thereby making travel easier and facilitating the growth of herbs and berry-producing plants that were important for both food and medicines. [6]
Increased understory biomass provides fuel that allows pasture fires to spread into the forests. Increased fire frequency since the 1990s is among the edge effects that are slowly transforming Amazonian forests. The changes in temperature, humidity and light levels promote invasion of non-forest species, including invasive species.
A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a bushfire ( in Australia ), desert fire, grass fire, hill fire, peat fire, prairie fire, vegetation fire, or ...