Bond William J, Keeley Jon E
Department of Botany, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa.
Trends Ecol Evol. 2005 Jul;20(7):387-94. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2005.04.025.
It is difficult to find references to fire in general textbooks on ecology, conservation biology or biogeography, in spite of the fact that large parts of the world burn on a regular basis, and that there is a considerable literature on the ecology of fire and its use for managing ecosystems. Fire has been burning ecosystems for hundreds of millions of years, helping to shape global biome distribution and to maintain the structure and function of fire-prone communities. Fire is also a significant evolutionary force, and is one of the first tools that humans used to re-shape their world. Here, we review the recent literature, drawing parallels between fire and herbivores as alternative consumers of vegetation. We point to the common questions, and some surprisingly different answers, that emerge from viewing fire as a globally significant consumer that is analogous to herbivory.
尽管世界上大部分地区经常发生火灾，并且存在大量关于火灾生态学及其在生态系统管理中的应用的文献，但在一般的生态学、保护生物学或生物地理学教科书中却很难找到关于火灾的参考文献。火灾已经燃烧生态系统长达数亿年，有助于塑造全球生物群落分布，并维持易发生火灾群落的结构和功能。火灾也是一种重要的进化力量，并且是人类用来重塑世界的首批工具之一。在此，我们回顾近期的文献，将火灾与食草动物作为植被的替代消费者进行对比。我们指出，将火灾视为类似于食草作用的全球重要消费者时出现的共同问题以及一些惊人的不同答案。
