Fires: the resilience of ecosystems
edited by the editorial staff of ilpapaverorossoweb.it
(published on ilpapaverorossoweb.it on 29 March 2024)
Can we determine the fire resilience of different types of ecosystems starting from the characteristics of the plants that compose them? What role do the adaptations that plants have developed play?
He answered these questions in a research published in The American Naturalistan international group composed of researchers from the National Research Council – With the’Institute of Geosciences and Georesources of Pisa (CNR-IGG) and theInstitute of Atmospheric and Climate Sciences of Turin (CNR-ISAC), and the University of Reading (United Kingdom) and Uned (Madrid).
The researchers start from the analysis of a fundamental factor to determine the resilience to fires of woods, forests and prairies: the ability of plants to regrow after a fire. In fact, the “stronger” the response of the plants, the more resilient the forests will be: However, ongoing climate change could have a significant impact on these dynamics.
«Forest fires – which especially in summer devastate vast portions of territory – I amactually, phenomena that have played a fundamental role in the evolution of plantsover 400 million years”, he explains Mara Baudena, researcher at CNR-ISAC and senior author of the work. «Some plants have developed particular adaptations that allow them to exist in flammable environments and to take advantage of fires to proliferate. For example, i Mediterranean holm oaks – and like them also many other species of trees – can regrow from their roots after the total combustion of the stem; the cones of some pine trees open only after a fire, stimulated by combustion. All these featureswhich a plant may or may not possess, regulate its response to fires. In the past, different types of responses have allowed plants to survive fire, but the rules of the game are changing due to climate change».
The study developed a mathematical model that allowed us to reproduce the fundamental interactions between plants and fires in different areas of the world.: «Simulations done with this model have shown that the resilience of boreal, Mediterranean and tropical forests depends on the ability of dominant plants to respond to fires. If these have poor fire response capabilitiesas in the case of rainforests, even a single fire could be enough to prevent the regrowth of these trees, leading to a radical change in the ecosystem. Vice versa, when the dominant plant’s response to fire is strongas in our Mediterranean holm oak forests, forests are very resilient: a featurethis, today put to the test by climatic upheavalswhich make the response capacity less efficient”, he continues Marta Magnani researcher at CNR-IGG and first author of the work.
The research has practical implications for forest management: according to the authorsIndeed, taking into account the ability of trees to respond to fires becomes particularly strategic for choosing the most suitable species for reforestation: the “right” tree can guarantee the recovery of the ecosystem also in relation to the increasingly frequent fires in our country.
I studyFurthermore, also investigates the relationships between fires and biodiversity by observing thatin some ecosystems such as African savannas, fires can even have positive effects on biodiversity, because they favor the replacement and diversification of vegetation.
This study provides a fundamental piece for understanding the relationships that exist between fires and biodiversitytopic of one of the working tables launched in the context of National Center for Biodiversitya project by National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR).
