Effects of Invasive Alien Plants on Fire Regimes
Background
This article considers how invasive plant species affect native ecosystems by altering fuel properties, fire behavior and fire regime characteristics. These may impact the ability of a site to restore to its previous state.
Conclusions & Takeaways
If regime changes promote the dominance of an invasive plant, then an invasive fire regime cycle can be established. As more ecosystem components and interactions are altered, restoration of preinvasion conditions becomes more difficult. The authors provide a model describing the relationships between invasive plants and fire regimes.
Reference:
Effects of Invasive Alien Plants on Fire Regimes. BioScience. 2004;54:677. doi:10.1641/0006-3568(2004)054[0677:eoiapo]2.0.co;2.
Affiliation:
- Western Ecological Research Center, US Geological Survey (USGS), Henderson, NV
- US Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service, Reno, NV
- Institute for Plant Conservation, Botany Department, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa
- USGS National Wetlands Research Center, Lafayette, LA
- USGS Western Ecological Research Center, Three Rivers, CA
- Department of Organismic Biology, Ecology, and Evolution at the University of California, Los Angeles, CA
- Weed Science Program at the University of California, Davis, CA
- School of Environmental Science at Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA, Australia
- US Bureau of Land Management, Idaho State Office, Boise, ID
- USGS Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Corvallis, OR