Plant and Animal Adaptations to Fire

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Plant and Animal Adaptations to Fire
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What is Evolution??
All changes that have transformed life on Earth
from its earliest beginnings to the diversity
that characterizes it today.
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Darwin's main ideas from "The Origin of Species"
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1. Natural selection is differential success in
reproduction
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2. Natural selection occurs through an
interaction between the environment and the
variability inherent among the individual
organisms making up a population
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3. The product of natural selection is the
adaptation of populations of organisms to their
environment
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How does natural selection work?
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Populations Evolve, Natural Selection Occurs at
the Level of Organisms
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Three factors that influence rates of
evolutionary adaptation
1) Generation time 2) Rates of reproduction (K
vs. r selected species) 3) Strength of selection
pressure (frequency/severity of disturbance)
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Resistance-directly surviving fire Resilience-top
-killing but re-sprouts (oaks, aspens) annual
(cheatgrass)
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• Group-Exercise
• Write down evolutionary adaptations for trees
  that are frequently exposed to low intensity,
  surface fires
• 2) Write down what characteristics trees would
  have that were only exposed to infrequent, high
  intensity, crown fires

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Fire protection is related to three factors
1) Height
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Meristematic Tissue
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Protection of apical meristems
Longleaf pine buds
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Fire protection is related to three factors
2) Soil Insulation
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Fire protection is related to three factors
3) Bark
thick bark to protect sap layer (cambium) from
lethal temps (130 degrees F) during a fire
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Factors that influence bark resistance to fire
1) Ambient temperature
2) Dormant vs. Active Stage
3) Bark Flammability
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Factors that influence bark resistance to fire
4) Bark Reflectivity
5) Fire Frequency
6) Fire Intensity
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Fire scar on Sequoia
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(No Transcript)
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post fire environment is different
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1) increased productivity
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2) increased flowering
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3) seed dispersal
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Seeds-dehydrated metabolically dormant
Russian Knapweed seeds
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4) synchronous release of canopy stored seeds
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5) Synchronous release/germination of soil-stored
seeds
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  6) increasing establishment of seedlings
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Adaptations of Undergrowth Plants
Rhizome regenerative buds located on undergound
stems
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Adaptations of Undergrowth Plants
1) Survivors
Amelanchier spp.
Symphoricarpus spp.
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Vulnerability to lethal heating 1) location 2)
size
Arctostaphoylos uva-ursi
Linnaea borealis
Have shallow regenerative buds that are
susceptible to fire
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Regenerative buds located more than 2 inches
below the soil surface
Spiraea
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Adaptations of Undergrowth Plants
1) Colonizers
RESIDUAL COLONIZERS-species that are found in
burned areas but were not previously growing
there prior to burn
Ribes (gooseberries, currants)
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Wild Tobacco Nicotiana attenuata
-Present in the seed bank -Smoke cue for
germination
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seed coat resists water and heat and protects the
seed embryo for 200-300 years buried in the soil
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OFFSITE COLONIZERS-regenerate from seed blown in
or transported into a burn area
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Scouler willow
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Bull Thistle Seeds
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Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum)
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How does fire affect wildlife? 1) Direct (death,
injury) 2) Indirect (loss or alteration of
habitat)
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Ability to Survive depends on 1) Mobility 2)
Ability to Seek Shelter
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Ability to Survive depends on 3) Arboreal
dwelling 4) Physiologic avoidance (aestivation)
Sonoran Desert Toad
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Main effect of fire on animals is on their habitat
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Habitat-Resources needed to support a viable
population over space and through time
4 Components 1) Food 2) Cover 3) Water 4) Space
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Benefits of Habitat-Kirtland's warbler
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Detrimental Effects of Fire to Habitat-Mexican
spotted owl
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Habitat Trade-offs
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http//www.youtube.com/watch?v3vrTRg3WnDI
Migrating birds flock to grasslands treated with
prescribed fire. (USFWS)
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2009 Victoria, Australia Fires
wombat
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Kangaroo corpses lay scattered by the roadsides
while wombats that survived the wildfires'
onslaught emerged from their underground burrows
to find blackened earth and nothing to eat.
Wildlife rescue officials worked frantically
yesterday to help the animals that made it
through Australia's worst-ever wildfires, but
they said millions of animals likely perished in
the inferno. Scores of kangaroos have been found
dead around roads, where they were overwhelmed by
flames and smoke while attempting to flee, said
Jon Rowdon, president of the rescue group
Wildlife Victoria. Kangaroos that survived are
suffering from burned feet, a result of their
territorial behavior. After escaping the initial
flames, the creatures - which prefer to stay in
one area - likely circled back to their homes,
singeing their feet on the smoldering ground.
"It's just horrific," said Neil Morgan,
president of the Statewide Wildlife Rescue
Emergency Service in Victoria, the state where
fires were still burning. Some wombats that hid
in their burrows managed to survive the blazes,
but those that are not rescued by humans face a
slow and certain death as they emerge to find
their food supply gone, said Pat O'Brien,
president of the Wildlife Protection Association
of Australia. "We've got a wallaby joey at the
moment that has crispy fried ears because he
stuck his head out of his mum's pouch and lost
all his whiskers and cooked up his nose," Rowdon
said. "They're the ones your hearts really go out
to." In some of the hardest-hit areas, rescuers
used vaporizing tents to help creatures whose
lungs were burned by the searing heat and smoke.
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California scrub drainage, 2007, wildlife motion
detectors
901 am
945 am Santa Ana winds trigger camera
1112 pm
910 am
450 am