Don't let it burn too much

Fires are dangerous. Fact. But are they a bad thing for the biodiversity of the rainforest?

Hmmm, the answer to this may not be as obvious as it seems. Undoubtedly, if there is a fire in a rainforest there will be a loss of habitat for some species and the destruction of others. This can be seen in many studies (Kinniard & O'Brian, 1998) (Nykvist, 1996). However, some studies have shown that a rainforest can survive in an environment where fire is common and possibly even thrive with the constant re-sprouting (Metcalfe, 2011).

Metcalfe mentions that although many South-East Asian and South American rainforests are damaged heavily by fire those located in Australia have developed some kind of resistance to its destructive power. The wood still burns of course, but 91% of the species, for which there is data, "survive by re-sprouting, root-suckering or coppicing". It is suggested that this may be that due to the fact that smaller fires are a lot more common in Australia and any species which were not either resistant or had coping mechanisms have gone extinct. He does however, highlight that this is a fairly regional example and that there is not much existing data.

Nevertheless, another recent study has shown that fire may become even more dangerous to the rainforest. A joint US-Brazil project by the Woods Hole Research Center highlighted the dangers that as areas of rainforest become drier with the effects of anthropogenic climate change and deforestation an environment is created where fires spread more easily. The study took three plots of rainforest and exposed two out of the three to fires annually or every two to three years. They then left the third plot untouched. In years of drought the fires burned more intensely whereas in years without drought the fires were almost unnoticed (WHRC, 2014).

Left - A aerial view of the 3 experimental fire subplots being used by Center scientists. Right - A field researcher lighting part of the 2009 experimental burn.
Image take from WHRC,(2014)

If this is the case, with reports that El Niño is becoming more frequent (Federov & Philander, 2000) thus leading to more frequent droughts, fires could become a huge problem for many areas of rainforest.

That's all for now.