Fire ecology - Latest research and news

Fire ecology articles from across Nature Portfolio

Fire ecology is the study of the interaction between ecosystems and the wildfires that occur naturally within them. Wildfires are common in various ecosystems and can be necessary for plant developmental processes. Fire ecology also studies the effect of anthropogenic change and management on the incidence and effects of wildfires.

News and Comment

Scorched Earth

The destructive consequences of catastrophic wildfires, which are capable of destroying homes and livelihoods, frequently hit the front pages of newspapers worldwide. But scientific attention is increasingly turning towards understanding changes in wildfire regimes.

Editorial22 Feb 2024 Nature Plants
Volume: 10, P: 197-198
After fire, coast redwoods use decades-old carbon reserves to recover

Following a catastrophic wildfire, iconic coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) trees rebuilt their canopies by leveraging massive, stored carbon reserves, some of which were photosynthesized from the atmosphere 50–100 years ago. New leaves grew from buried buds, which had been dormant for 500–1,000 plus years in the oldest trees.

News & Views08 Dec 2023 Nature Plants
Volume: 9, P: 1956-1957
Smoke on the rise
- Jasper Franke
Research Highlights05 Sept 2023 Nature Climate Change
Volume: 13, P: 896
Landscape management is urgently needed to address the rise of megafires in South America

Climate change and unsustainable land-use practices are causing megafires in South America. Here we call for rigorous scientific coordination and global cooperation to claim back landscape planning, mitigate fire risk and foster resilience in the region.
- Dolors Armenteras
- Francisco de la Barrera
Comments & OpinionOpen Access02 Sept 2023 Communications Earth & Environment
Volume: 4, P: 305
Capturing building vulnerability to wildfires with graph theory

Akshat Chulawat describes how graph theory can be used to predict the vulnerability of the built environment to wildfire.
- Akshat Chulahwat
Research Highlights28 Apr 2023 Nature Reviews Earth & Environment
Volume: 4, P: 600
The last Afromontane forests in Angola are threatened by fires
- Luke L. Powell
- Pedro Vaz Pinto
- Martim Melo
Correspondence20 Mar 2023 Nature Ecology & Evolution
Volume: 7, P: 628-629