Fire Ecology

Fire ecology examines the interactions between fire and living systems, recognising fire as both a natural disturbance and a management tool. In many ecosystems fire governs vegetation structure, species composition and nutrient cycling. The frequency, intensity and timing of fires—collectively the fire regime—shape adaptations ranging from thick bark and serotinous cones to fire-stimulated germination and resprouting. Climate variability and land-use change modulate ignition sources and fuel moisture, altering fire seasons and extremes. Fire can maintain open habitats, promote biodiversity and release pulses of nutrients, yet it also poses threats to carbon storage, human health and infrastructure. Integrating fire-adapted management, such as prescribed burning, with landscape-scale monitoring and climate projections is essential to balance ecological resilience, carbon sequestration and community safety under a warming climate.

Research from Nature Portfolio

A comprehensive synthesis of Amazon carbon flux estimates over 2010–2020 combined bottom-up ecosystem modelling and top-down atmospheric inversions to reveal that while the Amazon on average remained near carbon-neutral, the Brazilian Amazon acted as a net source during extreme droughts and wildfire events. This work highlights persistent uncertainties in regional carbon budgets and calls for improved integration of fire-driven emissions into climate policy planning.

Analysis of the unprecedented 2023 Canadian wildfire season showed that record-early snowmelt, multi-year drought and spring heat anomalies—amplified by anthropogenic warming—led to an exceptionally long fire season burning some 15 million hectares. The study underscores how compounded climate extremes can overwhelm suppression capacity, driving widespread air-quality crises and large-scale ecosystem disturbance.

Investigations in south-eastern Australia linked compound modes of climate variability, such as El Niño and the Indian Ocean Dipole, to elevated fuel dryness and extreme fire weather in temperate eucalypt forests. Palaeoclimate records confirm that recent fire-promoting phases exceed historical precedents, signalling a non-linear rise in large, high-severity fires under continued warming.

Research from all publishers

A coupled ecosystem–fire model applied to southern Amazonia projected that greenhouse-gas–driven warming and drying could double burned forest extent by mid-century, releasing up to 17 Pg CO₂-equivalent if deforestation continues. Scenario analyses indicate that ignition control and avoidance of new clearing can halve fire emissions and safeguard intact and indigenous territories.

Field assessments using airborne lidar in degraded tropical forests demonstrated that repeated burns lead to persistent losses in above-ground carbon stocks. Even after years of regrowth, stands subject to multiple fires retained as little as 7–54% of intact carbon, emphasising the long-term climate and biodiversity impacts of frequent understorey fires.

A quantitative review of post-fire invasive predator activity across diverse ecosystems found that feral cats and foxes show a peak in activity shortly after fire events, declining over subsequent months. This pattern identifies a critical window for targeted predator management to protect vulnerable native fauna following burns.

Fire Ecology publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in fire ecology across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Fire regime: The characteristic pattern of fires in a region, defined by frequency, intensity, seasonality and spatial extent.

Fuel load: The quantity and continuity of combustible organic material—live and dead—in an ecosystem.

Fire intensity: The rate of energy release per unit length of fire front, indicating potential ecological impacts.

Carbon sink: An ecosystem component or process that absorbs more CO₂ than it emits, reducing atmospheric concentrations.

Serotiny: A seed-storage strategy in which cones or fruits open only under the high-heat conditions produced by fire, ensuring post-fire regeneration.

References

1. Synthesis of the land carbon fluxes of the Amazon region between 2010 and 2020. Communications Earth & Environment (2024).
2. Drivers and Impacts of the Record-Breaking 2023 Wildfire Season in Canada. Nature Communications (2024).
3. Connections of climate change and variability to large and extreme forest fires in southeast Australia. Communications Earth & Environment (2021).
4. The gathering firestorm in southern Amazonia. Science Advances (2020).
5. A large‐scale field assessment of carbon stocks in human‐modified tropical forests. Global Change Biology (2014).
6. Cats, foxes and fire: quantitative review reveals that invasive predator activity is most likely to increase shortly after fire. Fire Ecology (2023).