Search USGS⌕ Search
Home/Archive/USGS

USGS · 70247801

Evolutionary fire ecology: An historical account and future directions

Juli G. Pausas·Jon E. Keeley
View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

The idea that fire acts as an evolutionary force contributing to shaping species traits started a century ago, but had not been widely recognized until very recently. Among the first to realize this force were E dward B . Poulton, R. D ale Guthrie, and E dwin V . Komarek in animals and W illis L . Jepson, W alter W . Hough, T om M . Harris, P hilip V . Wells, and R obert W . Mutch in plants. They were all ahead of their time in their evolutionary thinking. Since then, evolutionary fire ecology has percolated very slowly into the mainstream ecology and evolutionary biology; in fact, this topic is still seldom mentioned in textbooks of ecology or evolution. Currently, there is plenty of evidence suggesting that we cannot understand the biodiversity of our planet without considering the key evolutionary role of fire. But there is still research to be done in order to fully understand fire's contribution to species evolution and to predicting species responses to rapid global changes.

Explore related subjects

BioScienceArticle

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Juli G. Pausas, Jon E. Keeley. 2023-08-08. Evolutionary fire ecology: An historical account and future directions. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci%2Fbiad059

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related USGS reports

USGS2026

Climate change is reshaping seagrass futures: Novel environments and opportunities along coastlines and across oceans

Seagrasses are a highly productive ecosystem that supports biodiversity and fisheries, protects coastlines, and buries globally significant carbon stocks. Because seagrasses are increasingly stressed by warmer, darker, and more variable waters, established management strategies may not guarantee future success. Here, we depict a global outlook for seagrass futures by synthesizing how climate and non-climate human pressures may restructure meadow composition, food webs, fisheries, and blue carbon services. Current seagrass range shifts, adaptations, and acclimations to novel environmental conditions preview future states: climate-tolerant species often become dominant post-disturbance, seeds can disperse hundreds of kilometers, and local management can facilitate habitat persistence and large-scale restoration. To boost climate resilience, we propose a three-part framework involving (1) expanding seagrass mariculture and planting, (2) detecting and predicting shifting stressor gradients and species distributions, and (3) managing for seagrasses tolerant of novel environments. Together, these strategies offer proactive pathways for cultivating climate-adapted seagrass meadows worldwide.

BioScience↗
USGS2026

Perspectives and insights gained from applying landscape ecological approaches to the Upper Mississippi riverscape

Advances in remote sensing, spatial data collection, hydraulic and geospatial models, and the maturation of landscape ecology during the early 2000s spurred the concept of rivers as landscapes or ‘riverscapes’. Since that time, the Upper Mississippi River Restoration (UMRR) Program - one of the world’s longest running large-river ecosystem restoration and monitoring programs - has applied landscape ecological principles to the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS). I examine spatial patterns of aquatic nutrient concentrations, submersed aquatic vegetation, and fish and mussel communities, finding that within-river patterns are often patchy in nature, likely resulting from how nutrient processes and community traits interact with spatial variability in hydraulic exchange patterns. Local-scale patchy spatial patterns in the UMRS are embedded in system-scale longitudinal gradients and a hierarchical view of the river has provided a foundation for strategic river restoration planning. Key Words: Aquatic Habitat, hydraulic connectivity, patch, restoration, riverscape

BioScience↗