Changes on the development ofAcaulospora scrobiculata inTrifolium pratense (red clover) roots and bulk substrate after plant burning

In a pot experiment, burning or clipping ofTrifolium pratense plants colonized by the vesiculararbuscular mycorrhizal (VAM) fungusAcaulospora scrobiculata increased the number of spores in the substrate and the abundance of vesicles. The length of external mycelium and inoculum potential increased with clipping, but decreased with plant burning. Results suggest that the loss of photosynthesising tissue does not explain the effect of burning on VAM propagule activity. ei]R O D Dixon     

Synergistic interactions between leaf beetle herbivory and fire enhance tamarisk (Tamarix spp.) mortality

The combined effects of herbivory and fire on plant mortality were investigated using prescribed burns of tamarisk (Tamarix ramosissima Lebed) exposed to herbivory by the saltcedar leaf beetle (Chrysomelidae: Diorhabda carinulata Desbrocher). Tamarix stands in the Humboldt Sink (NV, USA) were divided into three treatments: summer burn (August 2006), fall burn (October 2006) and control (unburned), and litter depth was manipulated to vary fire intensity within burn seasons. A gradient of existing herbivory impact was described with three plant condition metrics prior to fire: reduced proportions of green canopy, percent root crown starch sampled at the height of the growing season (August 2006), and percent root crown starch measured during dormancy (December 2006). August root crown starch concentration and proportion green canopy were strongly correlated, although the proportion green canopy predicted mortality better than August root crown starch. December root crown starch concentration was more depleted in unburned trees and in trees burned during the summer than in fall burn trees. Mortality in summer burned trees was higher than fall burned trees due to higher fire intensity, but December root crown starch available for resprouting in the spring was also lower in summer burned trees. The greatest mortality was observed in trees with the lowest December root crown starch concentration which were exposed to high fire intensity. Disproportionate changes in the slope and curvature of prediction traces as fire intensity and December starch reach reciprocal maximum and minimum levels indicate that beetle herbivory and fire intensity are synergistic.     

Economic incentives for conservation: beekeeping and Saturniidae caterpillar utilization by rural communities

The economic viability of the wildlife based enterprises (bee-keeping and caterpillar utilization) in Malawi is discussed in relation to conventional agricultural enterprises (maize, beans and ground-nuts). A strong incentive emerges for rural people to adopt wildlife management as an adjunct to subsistence agriculture, and therefore, to promote conservation of natural ecosystems and wildlife habitats in the face of growing human population and demand for land. Dependence on agriculture has depleted the wildlife resource outside protected areas and has been less effective in improving the wealth and living standards of most rural people. This study illustrates that the Malawi Department of National Parks and Wildlife needs to introduce economic incentives that integrate biological conservation with economic development for the rural people. The management programme involves the adoption of a rotation burning policy that promotes vegetation coppicing, eases harvesting and promotes high caterpillar yields.     

Responses of heather moorland and Mediterranean mouflon foraging to prescribed-burning and cutting

We assessed the effects of prescribed burning and cutting on mouflon (Ovis gmelini musimon × Ovis sp.) spring habitat using an experimental design (17.28 ha) of 2 burned, 2 cut, and 2 untreated plots within a homogeneous stand dominated by heather (Erica cinerea and Calluna vulgaris). Overall, we found a shift in treated plots from ligneous species to herbaceous species with high digestive and energetic values for mouflon. We also found a consistently higher number of mouflon feeding on these treated habitats compared to untreated plots. Such effects were still apparent 4 years after habitat modifications. Our approaches could be used by managers to improve and maintain the range of mouflon populations experiencing habitat loss (e.g., woody plant encroachment) and for which the condition of an animal has often a high economical value through trophy hunting. © 2011 The Wildlife Society.     

Fire as a key driver of Earth's biodiversity

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, within the context of climate, resource availability and environmental heterogeneity. However, current fire‐management practices rarely take into account the ecological and evolutionary roles of fire in maintaining biodiversity. Here, we focus on the mechanisms that enable fire to act as a major ecological and evolutionary force that promotes and maintains biodiversity over numerous spatiotemporal scales. From an ecological perspective, the vegetation, topography and local weather conditions during a fire generate a landscape with spatial and temporal variation in fire‐related patches (pyrodiversity), and these produce the biotic and environmental heterogeneity that drives biodiversity across local and regional scales. There have been few empirical tests of the proposition that ‘pyrodiversity begets biodiversity’ but we show that biodiversity should peak at moderately high levels of pyrodiversity. Overall species richness is greatest immediately after fire and declines monotonically over time, with postfire successional pathways dictated by animal habitat preferences and varying lifespans among resident plants. Theory and data support the ‘intermediate disturbance hypothesis’ when mean patch species diversity is correlated with mean fire intervals. Postfire persistence, recruitment and immigration allow species with different life histories to coexist. From an evolutionary perspective, fire drives population turnover and diversification by promoting a wide range of adaptive responses to particular fire regimes. Among 39 comparisons, the number of species in 26 fire‐prone lineages is much higher than that in their non‐fire‐prone sister lineages. Fire and its byproducts may have direct mutagenic effects, producing novel genotypes that can lead to trait innovation and even speciation. A paradigm shift aimed at restoring biodiversity‐maintaining fire regimes across broad landscapes is required among the fire research and management communities. This will require ecologists and other professionals to spread the burgeoning fire‐science knowledge beyond scientific publications to the broader public, politicians and media.     

The influence of different aspects of grouse moorland management on nontarget bird assemblages

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Local and global pyrogeographic evidence that indigenous fire management creates pyrodiversity

Despite the challenges wildland fire poses to contemporary resource management, many fire‐prone ecosystems have adapted over centuries to millennia to intentional landscape burning by people to maintain resources. We combine fieldwork, modeling, and a literature survey to examine the extent and mechanism by which anthropogenic burning alters the spatial grain of habitat mosaics in fire‐prone ecosystems. We survey the distribution of Callitris intratropica, a conifer requiring long fire‐free intervals for establishment, as an indicator of long‐unburned habitat availability under Aboriginal burning in the savannas of Arnhem Land. We then use cellular automata to simulate the effects of burning identical proportions of the landscape under different fire sizes on the emergent patterns of habitat heterogeneity. Finally, we examine the global extent of intentional burning and diversity of objectives using the scientific literature. The current distribution of Callitris across multiple field sites suggested long‐unburnt patches are common and occur at fine scales (<0.5 ha), while modeling revealed smaller, patchy disturbances maximize patch age diversity, creating a favorable habitat matrix for Callitris. The literature search provided evidence for intentional landscape burning across multiple ecosystems on six continents, with the number of identified objectives ranging from two to thirteen per study. The fieldwork and modeling results imply that the occurrence of long‐unburnt habitat in fire‐prone ecosystems may be an emergent property of patch scaling under fire regimes dominated by smaller fires. These findings provide a model for understanding how anthropogenic burning alters spatial and temporal aspects of habitat heterogeneity, which, as the literature survey strongly suggests, warrant consideration across a diversity of geographies and cultures. Our results clarify how traditional fire management shapes fire‐prone ecosystems, which despite diverse objectives, has allowed human societies to cope with fire as a recurrent disturbance.