Fire as a key driver of Earth's biodiversity

• Published in: Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society Vol. 94; no. 6; pp. 1983 - 2010
• Main Authors: He, Tianhua, Lamont, Byron B., Pausas, Juli G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.12.2019
• Subjects: Animals; Biodiversity; Biological evolution; Ecology; Endemism; environmental heterogeneity; Evolution; fire regime; Fires; Genotypes; Habitat preferences; Heterogeneity; Immigration; intermediate disturbance hypothesis; Landscape; Models, Biological; patch mosaic burning; pyrodiversity; Resource availability; Resource management; Scientific papers; Speciation; Species diversity; Species richness; Temporal variations; Terrestrial ecosystems; Weather; fire regime; intermediate disturbance hypothesis; biodiversity; environmental heterogeneity; pyrodiversity; patch mosaic burning

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, withi...