Fire adaptations

Fire adaptations are traits of plants and animals that help them survive wildfire or to use resources created by wildfire. These traits can help plants and animals increase their survival rates during a fire and/or reproduce offspring after a fire. Both plants and animals have multiple strategies for surviving and reproducing after fire. Plants in wildfire-prone ecosystems often survive through adaptations to their local fire regime. Such adaptations include physical protection against heat, increased growth after a fire event, and flammable materials that encourage fire and may eliminate competition.

For example, plants of the genus Eucalyptus contain flammable oils that encourage fire and hard sclerophyll leaves to resist heat and drought, ensuring their dominance over less fire-tolerant species. Dense bark, shedding lower branches, and high water content in external structures may also protect trees from rising temperatures. Fire-resistant seeds and reserve shoots that sprout after a fire encourage species preservation, as embodied by pioneer species. Smoke, charred wood, and heat can stimulate the germination of seeds in a process called serotiny. Exposure to smoke from burning plants promotes germination in other types of plants by inducing the production of the orange butenolide.

Fires have also allowed for surviving species to create adaptations post-fire. This allows for better survival post-fire and furthers establishment . Adaptations as an example for boreal forests can include thick bark and post-fire flowering that is directly linked to fires. Other examples of species outside of plants and trees allow for further adaptation post-fire to survive and regenerate their population. This allows for better dispersal and new dispersal patterns to create a more stable environment. Vegetation, as an example, showed that it had greater gene flow than when unburnt and undisturbed.