NAME : SABAHAT ZAIB DURRANI

ROLL NO : 38

SUBJECT : PLANT ECOLOGY 1

SUBMITTED : TO MAM SAMINA

TOPIC : FIRE AS AN ECOLOGICAL FACTOR

 FIRE ECOLOGY :-
 Fire ecology is a scientific discipline concerned with natural processes involving fire in
an ecosystem and the ecological effects, the interactions between fire and the abiotic and
biotic components of an ecosystem, and the role as an ecosystem process.
 Many ecosystems, particularly prairie, savanna, chaparral and coniferous forests, have
evolved with fire as an essential contributor to habitat vitality and renewal.
 Many plant species in fire-affected environments require fire to germinate, establish, or to
reproduce.
 Wildfire suppression not only eliminates these species, but also the animals that depend
upon them.
 Fire is a chemical reaction, and flame is the visible indication of that chemical reaction. When a
flame is visible, the combustion is termed "flaming combustion." With "glowing combustion" one
will only see embers. •
 Fuels char at relatively low temperatures, but once charred can continue to burn by glowing
combustion. As fire spreads, there is constant ignition of new fuels through one of the three heat
transfer mechanisms described earlier, and the fire continues to advance.

 FACTORS OF FIRE ECOLOGY:

 Fire dependence
 Fire history
 Fire regime
 Causes
 Effects
 Fire spread and its types
 FIRE DEPENDENCE:
 In 1930s researchers in southern united states argued against negative perspective of fire with
belief that fire is bad.
 They recognized that some species of plantsrely upon the effects of fire to make the environment
more hospitable for regeneration and growth.

 FIRE SCARS:
 Trees record their history through a system of growth rings that develop on the trees each years.
 When a fire goes through an area the growth of rings of that particular tree may be scarred on live
trees this is called a fire scar.
 Fire scars can also be seen on dead trees.
 The study of growth of rings is called DENDROCHRONOLOGY.

 FIRE REGIME:
 Fire regime refers to the patterns of fire that occure over long period of time,and the immediate
effects of fire in the ecosystem in which it occures.
 It is a function of the frequency of fire occurence,fire intensity and the amount of fuel consumed.

 CAUSES OF FIRE:
 Approximately 90% of fire in the last decade have been human caused either through negligence
accidents.

 The remaining 10% of fires are caused by lighting strikes.

  EFFECTS OF FIRES:

 ABIOTIC RESPONCES:
 Fire can affent the soil by direct contact with it and by its effects on the plants community
associated with it.
 By removing overhead vegetation,fire can lead to increasd solar radiation on the soil surface by
day,resulting in greater warming,and to greater cooling througj the loss of radiative heat at night.
 Plant transpiration will be reduced following a fire,allowing the soil to retain more moisture.
 Expore to sunlight,wind and evaporation,however fire will work in the othe way to dry the soil.

 BIOTIC RESPONCES:
 Plants have evolved many adaptation to crop with fire.
 Maturition and releasde of seeds is triggered,in whole or in parts,by fire or smokes;this behaviours
is called serotiny.
 On the other hand,germination of seed activated by trigger is not to be confused with pyriscence;it
is known as physiological dormancy.
 A lodgepole pine forest is naturally adapted to fires.

 FIRE SPREAD AND ITS TYPES:
 GROUND FIRES:
 When burn organic matter in the soil beneath surface litter and are sustained bya glowing
combustion.
 SURFACE FIRES:
 Which spread witha flaming front and burn leaf litter,fallen branches and other fuels located at
ground level.
 CROWN FIRES:
 which burn through the top layer of foliage on a tree known as the canopy or crown fires.
 SIZE AND INTENSITY:
 High intensith fires can cause a soil destruction,such as loss of nitrogen,nutrients and removal of
debris needed to protect seedlings.
 In areas where such damage occures,rehabilitation plans are made and actions are take to reduce
further demage and ro try to restore the area.

 BENEFITS OF FIRE:
 Insects pest control.
 Removal of non-native species that competr with native species for nutrients and other needs.
 Additions of nutrients for trees amd other vegetation.
 Remove the undergrowth, thereby allowing sunlight to reach the forest floor to encourage growth
of native species.
 Encourage the growth offire dependent species.

 DISADVANTAGES:
 Fire can cause soil damages,especially through combustion in the latter layer and organic matterial
in the soil,this organic material help to protect the soil from erosion.
 When organic material is removed by an essential intensity fire,erosion can occure.
 Heat from intense fire can also caise soil particles to become hyrophobic.
 Rain water then tends to run off on the soil surface rather than to infiltrate through the soil. This
can also contribute to erosion.
 FOREST FIRE AS AN ECOLOGICAL FACTOR :-


 Forest fire as an ecological factor is a highly broad and complex one. The research on fire in nature
has hundreds of papers annually and seems to be growing at an ascending rate. It is difficult to
compress small amount of the available literature on aspects of fire as an ecological factor into this
essay
 fire as an ecological factor into this essay.
 For this reason this essay will emphasize the effects of fire on ecosystem properties that are
important for plant growth and development and on the influence of fire on growth and
reproductive characteristics of plants and effects on ecology.
 Forest fire is a fire in an area of combustible vegetation occurring in rural areas.
 Forest Fire occurrence throughout the history of terrestrial life invites conjecture that fire must
have had pronounced evolutionary effects on most ecosystems’ flora and fauna.
 Many plant species depend on the effects of fire for growth and reproduction.
 Wildfires in ecosystems where wildfire is uncommon or where non-native vegetation has
encroached may have strongly negative ecological effects.

 Fire Ecology
 Fire ecology concerned with natural processes containing fire in an ecosystem and the ecological
impacts, the relationship between fire and the abiotic and biotic components of an ecosystem.
Forest fires are general in climates that are mostly moist to allow the growth of vegetation but dry
and hot periods. Most species types of North American forests evolved with fire, and many of
these species depend on wildfires, and particularly high-severity fires, to reproduce and grow. Fire
provides service to restoration nutrients from plant matter back to soil, the heat from fire is
important to the germination of some types of seeds, and the snags (dead trees).
 Early successional forests created by high-severity fire support some of the highest levels of native
biodiversity found in temperate conifer forests.
 Global warming and climate changes are causing an increase in temperatures and more droughts
nationwide which contributes to an increase in wildfire risk Although some ecosystems depend on
naturally fires to regulate growth, some ecosystems suffer from too much fire, as the chaparral in
southern California and lower-elevation deserts in the American Southwest.
 The increased fire frequency in these ordinarily fire-dependent areas has upset natural cycles and
damaged native plant communities.
 Because they are highly flammable, they can increase the future risk of fire, creating a positive
feedback loop that increases fire frequency and further alters native vegetation communities.
 In the Amazon Rainforest, drought, logging, cattle ranching practices, and slash-and-burn
agriculture damage fire-resistant forests and promote the growth of flammable brush, creating a
cycle that encourages more burning.
 Fires in the rainforest threaten its collection of diverse species and produce large amounts of CO2 .
 A combination of images taken at a photo point at Florida Panther NWR.
 The images are panoramic and cover a 360 degree view from a monitoring point.
 These images range from pre-burn to 2 year post burn.

 Forest fire and ecological succession

 Fire effects are different in every ecosystem and the organisms in those ecosystems have adapted
according to fire effects.

 One common thing is that in all ecosystems, fire creates a mosaic of different habitat areas, with
areas ranging from those having just been burned to those that have been untouched by fire for
many years.
 This is form of ecological succession in which a freshly burned site will progress through
continuous and directional phases of colonization following the destruction caused by the fire. ]
Ecologists commonly summarize succession through the changes in vegetation that successively
arise.
 After wildfire the first species to germinate will be those with seeds are already present in the soil,
or those with seeds are able to travel into the burned area quickly.
 These are commonly fast-growing plants that require light and are intolerant of shading. As time
passes, more slowly growing, shade-tolerant woody species will suppress some of the herbaceous
plants.
 Conifers are often early successional species, while broad leaf trees frequently replace them in the
absence of fire.
 Hence, many conifer forests are themselves dependent upon recurring fire.
 Different kinds of plants, animals, and microbes specialize in exploiting different stages in this
process of succession, and by creating these different forms of patches, fire allows a greater
number of species to exist within a landscape.
 Soil properties will be a factor in determination the specific nature of a fire-adapted ecosystem, as
will climate and topography

 Plant adaptation
 Vegetation in forest fire-prone ecosystems often survives through adaptations to their local fire
regime.
 Such changes include physical protection against heat, increased growth after a fire event, and
flammable materials that encourage fire and may eliminate competition.
 For example, plants of the genus Eucalyptus contain flammable oils that encourage fire and hard
sclerophyll leaves to resist heat and drought, ensuring their dominance over less fire-tolerant
species.
 Dense bark cover, shed lower branches, and high water content in external structures may also
protect trees from rising temperatures.
 Fire-adopted seeds and reserve shoots that sprout after a fire encourage species preservation, as
embodied by pioneer species.
 Fire Smoke, charred wood and heat can stimulate the germination of seeds in a process called
serotiny. Smoke from burning plants increase germination in other types of plants by inducing the
production of the orange butenolide. Chamise dead wood litter is low in water content and
flammable, and the shrub quickly sprouts after a fire.
 Sequoia rely on periodic fires to reduce competition, release seeds from their cones, and clear the
soil and canopy for new growth.
 Caribbean Pine in Bahamian pineyards have adapted to rely on low-intensity, surface fires for
survival and growth. Balanced fire frequency for growth is every 3 to 10 years.
 Frequent forest fires favor herbaceous plants, and infrequent fires favor species typical of
Bahamian dry forests.Ecological succession after a forest fire in a boreal pine forest next to Hara
Bog, Lahemaa National Park, Estonia. The images were taken one and two years after the fire.

 Atmospheric effects
 Mostly Earth’s weather and air pollution resides in the troposphere, the part of the atmosphere
that extends from the surface of the planet to a height of about 10 kilometers (6 mi).
 The vertical lift of a thunderstorm or pyrocumulonimbus can be increased in the area of a large
wildfire, which can propel smoke, soot, and other particulate matter as high as the lower
stratosphere.
 Previously, prevailing scientific theory held that most particles in the stratosphere came from
volcanoes, but smoke and other wildfire emissions have been detected from the lower
stratosphere.
 Satellite data of smoke plumes from wildfires revealed that the plumes could be traced intact for
distances exceeding 1,600 kilometers (1,000 mi). Computer consisting models such as CALPUFF
may help predict the size and direction of wildfire-generated smoke plumes by using atmospheric
dispersion modeling.
 Forest fires can affect local atmospheric pollution, and release carbon in the form of carbon
dioxide. Forest fire emissions contain fine particulate matter which can cause cardiovascular and
respiratory problems. Increased fire emissions in the troposphere can increase ozone
concentration beyond safe levels.
 Indonesia forest fire 1997 were estimated to have released between 0.81 and 2.57 gigatonnes
(0.89 and 2.83 billion short tons) of CO2 into the atmosphere, which is between 13%–40% of
global carbon dioxide emissions annually from burning fossil fuels. [16][17] Atmospheric models
suggest that these concentrations of sooty particles could increase absorption of incoming solar
radiation during winter months by as much as 15%.

 Human risk exposure and airborne hazards

 Forest fire have a threat to human populations.
 The releasing of hazardous chemicals from the burning of wildland fuels significantly impacts
health in humans. Wildfire smoke is composed primarily of carbon dioxide and water vapor. Other
common smoke components present in lower concentrations are carbon monoxide,
formaldehyde, acrolein, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, and benzene.
 Small particulates suspended in air which come in solid form or in liquid droplets are also present
in smoke. 80 -90% of fire smoke, by mass, is within the fine particle size class of 2.5 micrometers in
diameter or smaller.
 The concentration of Carbon dioxide’s high in smoke, it poses a low health risk due to its low
toxicity. Some chemicals are considered to be significant hazards but are found in concentrations
that are too low to cause detectable health effects.
 The severity of fire smoke exposure to an individual is dependent on the length, severity, duration,
and proximity of the fire. People had affected directly to smoke via the respiratory tract though
inhalation of air pollutants.
 Communities are exposed indirectly to wildfire debris that can contaminate soil and water
supplies. The United State Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) created the Air Quality Index
(AQI), a public resource that provides national air quality standard concentrations for common air
pollutants. The public can use this index as a tool to determine their exposure to hazardous air
pollutants based on visibility range.

 Effects of fire on major forest ecosystem processes

 Fire and its relation with ecology are among the best-studied topics in contemporary ecosystem
ecology.
 The large numbers of existing research on fire and fire ecology indicates an urgent need to
synthesize the information on the pattern of fire effects on ecosystem composition, structure,
functions for application in fire and ecosystem management.
 Summarizing the fire effects and underlying principles are critical to reduce the risk of
uncharacteristic wildfires and for proper use of fire as an effective management tool toward
management goals.
 Forest fire can shape ecosystem composition, structure and functions by selecting fire adapted
species and removing other susceptible species, releasing nutrients from the biomass and
improving nutrient cycling, affecting soil characteristics through changing soil microbial activities
and water relations, and creating heterogeneous mosaics, which in turn, can further influence fire
behavior and ecological processes.
 Forest fire as a destructive force can consume large amount of biomass and cause negative
impacts such as post-fire soil erosion and water runoff, and air pollution. The impacts of fire on an
ecosystem depend on the fire regime, vegetation type, climate, physical environments, and the
scale of time and space of assessment. More ecosystem-specific studies are needed in future,
especially those focusing on temporal and spatial variations of fire effects through long-term
experimental monitoring and modeling.
 Mostly forests have evolved to utilize fire disturbances to maintain ecosystem health and to
regenerate. For example, many plants species actually require fire to germinate their seeds, and
forest fires return important nutrients to the forest soil that was previously being stored in
biomass. Forest fires help to clear out dead wood and other materials that would otherwise have
 taken much longer to break down and provide soil nutrition for the next generation of trees and
Burned forest plants serve as plants living in that forest.
 This process serves to keep a forest ecosystem healthy. important habitat for many species, such
as the Black-backed Woodpecker, Picoides arcticus, that is specialized to live and thrive in forests
that have experienced severe burning. At one time in the not-too-distant past, it was common
forest management policy to suppress and control forest fires as much as possible due a general
lack of understanding of fire’s importance in the ecological health of forest ecosystems.
 When forest fires are continuously suppressed, large amounts of dead biomass accumulates on
the forest floor, increasing the risk for more frequent and much more intense wildfires than
otherwise when they finally do occur. The current understanding of forest fires as a natural and
healthy part of forest ecosystem ecology, forest management efforts typically are now focusing on
a combination of containment where necessary to protect human communities, as well as periodic
fires for the sustainability and health of forest ecosystems.
 Mostly forests have evolved to utilize fire disturbances to maintain ecosystem health and to
regenerate. For example, many forest tree species require fire to germinate their seeds, and forest
fires return important nutrients to the forest soil that was previously being stored in biomass.
Forest fires help to clear out dead wood and other materials that would otherwise have taken
much longer to break down and provide soil nutrition for the next generation of trees and plants
living in that forest. These processes help to keep a forest ecosystem healthy.
 Burned areas of forest serve as important habitat for many species, such as the Black-backed
Woodpecker, Picoides arcticus, that is specialized to live and thrive in forests that have
experienced severe burning. When forest fires are continuously suppressed, large amounts of
dead biomass accumulates on the forest floor, increasing the risk for more frequent and much
more intense wildfires than otherwise when they finally do occur. This puts communities at an
increased risk for damage from these more intense fires.
 Also, the plants that do grow in such forests are much more densely packed than they would
otherwise have been. With the understanding of forest fires as a natural and healthy part of forest
ecosystem ecology, forest management efforts typically are now focusing on a combination of
containment where necessary to protect human communities, as well as periodic fires for the
sustainability and health of forest ecosystems.
 The study of Fire ecology is important because it regulate different ecological cycles It has impacts
on plantation, biodiversity, soil fertility and increase food web for habitats etc. So, the concept
that forest fire is not good is not true it is bad or good depend on its severity. Sometime artificial
fire is important for new vegetation and to burn forest residues, new grasslands, food for many
organisms etc. Forest fire impacts as ecology factor because it have directly or indirectly
relationship with ecology. So, it is important to study the relationship of forest fire with ecology to
keep natural balance ecosystem