A fire regime is the pattern, frequency, and intensity of the bushfires and wildfires that prevail in an area over long periods of time.[1] It is an integral part of fire ecology, and renewal for certain types of ecosystems. A fire regime describes the spatial and temporal patterns and ecosystem impacts of fire on the landscape, and provides an integrative approach to identifying the impacts of fire at an ecosystem or landscape level.[2] If fires are too frequent, plants may be killed before they have matured, or before they have set sufficient seed to ensure population recovery. If fires are too infrequent, plants may mature, senesce, and die without ever releasing their seed.
Fire regimes can change with the spatial and temporal variations in topography, climate, and fuel. Understanding the historic fire regime is important for understanding and predicting future fire regime changes and the interactions between fire and climates.[2]
- ^ Pyne, Stephen (June 2002). "How Plants Use Fire (And Are Used By It)". NOVA Online.
- ^ a b Morgan, Penelope; Hardy; Swetnam; Rollins; Long (1999). "Mapping fire regimes across time and space: Understanding coarse and fine-scale fire patterns" (PDF). International Journal of Wildland Fire. 10: 329–342 – via Google Scholar.