New research carried out by Bond, Woodward and Midgley from University of Cape Town, University of Sheffield and the South African National Biodiversity Institute of and published in the February 2005 issue of 'New Phytologist' (www.newphytologist.com) has shown that a potent force overrides climate in shaping vegetation fire.
Much of the world is covered by vegetation that seems out of place, for example in Mediterranean regions of South Africa low shrublands are found where rainfall is great enough to support forests. We also know, from satellite imagery, that wildfires are a global phenomenon occurring on all vegetated continents. Bond et al. suspected that fires are common in areas where vegetation does not "fit" the climate. If true, this suggests that fire has a major effect on the ecosystems of the world. So, how different would the world look if we could 'switch fire off'?
A new type of ecosystem model, Dynamic Global Vegetation Models (DGVMs) developed to answer questions on the link between global climate change and vegetation, was used to simulate a world without fire for this research.
Dr William Bond, University of Cape Town, explains: "For the first time, we have a global estimate of the importance of fire in shaping the natural world: without fire, the extent of closed forests would more than double (from 27% to 56% of the vegetated surface of the world), tropical grasslands and savannas would shrink to less than half (48%) of their current extent and temperate grasslands and shrublands, including the shrublands of Mediterranean climate regions, would shrink to 60% of their current extent."
"Fires destroy prop
'"/>
Contact: William Bond
bond@botzoo.uct.ac.za
27-021- 650-2439
Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
25-Jan-2005