A review of fire effects across South American ecosystems: The role of climate and time since fire

GIORGIS, MELISA A.; ZEBALLOS SEBASTIÁN; CARBONE LUCAS; ZIMMERMANN HEIKE; VON WEHRDEN HENRIK; AGUILAR RAMIRO; FERRERAS ANA; TECCO PAULA; KOWALJOW ESTEBAN; BARRI FERNANDO; GURVICH DIEGO; VILLAGRA PABLO; JAUREGUIBERRY PEDRO

Fire Ecology

Springer

Año: 2021

1933-9747

AbstractBackgroundFire is animportant driver of ecosystem dynamics worldwide. However, knowledge on broad-scale patterns of ecosystem and organism responses to fires is still scarce.Through a systematic quantitative review of available studies across SouthAmerica, we assessed fire effects on biodiversity and abundance of differentorganisms (i.e., plants, fungi, invertebrates, and vertebrates), plant fitness,and soil properties under four climate types, and time since the last fire (i.e.,early and late post fire). Weaddressed: (1) What fire effects have been studied across South America? (2)What are the overall responses of biodiversity, abundance, fitness, and soil propertiesto fires? (3) How do climate and time since fire modulate those responses?Results We analyzed160 articles reporting 1465 fire responses on paired burned and unburned conditions.We found no effect of fire on biodiversity or on invertebrate abundance, anegative effect on woody plant species and vertebrate abundance, and anincrease in shrub fitness. Soil in burned areas had higher bulk density and pH,and lower organic matter and nitrogen. Fire effect was significantly morepositive at early than at late post fire for plant fitness and for soil phosphorusand available nitrogen. Stronger negative effects in semiarid climate comparedto  humid warm climate suggest thathigher temperatures and water availability allow a faster  ecosystem recovery after fire.ConclusionsOur reviewhighlights the complexity of the climate-fire-vegetation feedback whenassessing the response of soil properties and different organisms at variouslevels. The resilience observed in biodiversity may be expected considering thelarge number of fire-prone ecosystems in South America. The recovery ofinvertebrate abundance, the reduction of the vertebrate abundance, and the lossof nitrogen and organic matter coincide with the responses found in globalreviews at early post-fire times. The strength of these responses was furtherinfluenced by climate type and post-fire time. Our synthesis provides the firstbroad-scale diagnosis of fire effects in South America, helping to visualizestrengths, weaknesses, and gaps in fire research. It also brings much neededinformation for developing adequate land management in a continent where fire playsa prominent socio-ecological role.