Fire and plant diversity at the global scale
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 man...
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Online Access: | https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/fire-and-plant-diversity-at-the-global-scale https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12596 |
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ftunivwagenin:oai:library.wur.nl:wurpubs/527374 2024-04-28T07:55:39+00:00 Fire and plant diversity at the global scale Pausas, Juli G. Carvalho Ribeiro, Eloi 2017 application/pdf https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/fire-and-plant-diversity-at-the-global-scale https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12596 en eng https://edepot.wur.nl/423954 https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/fire-and-plant-diversity-at-the-global-scale doi:10.1111/geb.12596 Wageningen University & Research Global Ecology and Biogeography 26 (2017) 8 ISSN: 1466-822X diversity fire regime plant richness productivity pyrogeography Article/Letter to editor 2017 ftunivwagenin https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12596 2024-04-03T15:20:23Z 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 (R2 =.30) and fire activity (R2 =.38). Once productivity and other environmental variables were in the model (R2 =.50), fire regime still explained a significant proportion of the variability in plant diversity (overall model, R2 =.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. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctica Wageningen UR (University & Research Centre): Digital Library Global Ecology and Biogeography 26 8 889 897 |
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Wageningen UR (University & Research Centre): Digital Library |
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ftunivwagenin |
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English |
topic |
diversity fire regime plant richness productivity pyrogeography |
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diversity fire regime plant richness productivity pyrogeography Pausas, Juli G. Carvalho Ribeiro, Eloi Fire and plant diversity at the global scale |
topic_facet |
diversity fire regime plant richness productivity pyrogeography |
description |
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 (R2 =.30) and fire activity (R2 =.38). Once productivity and other environmental variables were in the model (R2 =.50), fire regime still explained a significant proportion of the variability in plant diversity (overall model, R2 =.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. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Pausas, Juli G. Carvalho Ribeiro, Eloi |
author_facet |
Pausas, Juli G. Carvalho Ribeiro, Eloi |
author_sort |
Pausas, Juli G. |
title |
Fire and plant diversity at the global scale |
title_short |
Fire and plant diversity at the global scale |
title_full |
Fire and plant diversity at the global scale |
title_fullStr |
Fire and plant diversity at the global scale |
title_full_unstemmed |
Fire and plant diversity at the global scale |
title_sort |
fire and plant diversity at the global scale |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/fire-and-plant-diversity-at-the-global-scale https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12596 |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica |
op_source |
Global Ecology and Biogeography 26 (2017) 8 ISSN: 1466-822X |
op_relation |
https://edepot.wur.nl/423954 https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/fire-and-plant-diversity-at-the-global-scale doi:10.1111/geb.12596 |
op_rights |
Wageningen University & Research |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12596 |
container_title |
Global Ecology and Biogeography |
container_volume |
26 |
container_issue |
8 |
container_start_page |
889 |
op_container_end_page |
897 |
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1797580616076623872 |