Transcript Adaptations of Plants/Animals to Fire

Plant and Animal
Adaptations to Fire
What is Evolution??
All changes that have transformed
life on Earth from its earliest
beginnings to the diversity that
characterizes it today.
Darwin's main ideas from "The
Origin of Species"
1. Natural
selection is
differential
success in
reproduction
2. Natural selection occurs through
an interaction between the
environment and the variability
inherent among the individual
organisms making up a population
3. The product of natural selection is
the adaptation of populations of
organisms to their environment
How does
natural
selection
work?
Populations Evolve,
Natural Selection
Occurs at the Level
of Organisms
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)
Resistance-directly surviving fire
Resilience-top-killing but re-sprouts
(oaks, aspens); annual (cheatgrass)
Group-Exercise:
1) 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
Fire protection is related to three
factors:
1) Height
Meristematic Tissue
Protection of
apical
meristems
Longleaf pine buds
Fire protection is related to three
factors:
2) Soil
Insulation
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
Factors that
influence bark
resistance to fire
1) Ambient
temperature
2) Dormant vs.
Active Stage
3) Bark
Flammability
Factors that
influence bark
resistance to fire
4) Bark
Reflectivity
5) Fire Frequency
6) Fire Intensity
Fire scar on Sequoia
post fire environment is different
1) increased
productivity
2) increased flowering
3) seed dispersal
Seeds-dehydrated & metabolically
dormant
Russian Knapweed seeds
4) synchronous release of canopy
stored seeds
5) Synchronous release/germination of
soil-stored seeds
6) increasing establishment of seedlings
Adaptations of Undergrowth Plants
Rhizome: regenerative buds located on
undergound stems
Adaptations of Undergrowth Plants
1) Survivors
Amelanchier spp.
Symphoricarpus spp.
Vulnerability to lethal heating
1) location
2) size
Linnaea borealis
Arctostaphoylos uva-ursi
Have shallow regenerative buds that are susceptible to fire
Regenerative buds located more than 2
inches below the soil surface
Spiraea
Adaptations of Undergrowth Plants
1) Colonizers
RESIDUAL
COLONIZERSspecies that are found
in burned areas but
were not previously
growing there prior to
burn
Ribes (gooseberries, currants)
Wild Tobacco
Nicotiana attenuata
-Present in the seed
bank
-Smoke cue for
germination
seed coat resists water and heat and
protects the seed embryo for 200-300
years buried in the soil
OFFSITE
COLONIZERSregenerate from seed
blown in or transported
into a burn area
Scouler
willow
Bull Thistle Seeds
Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum)
How does fire affect wildlife?
1) Direct (death, injury)
2) Indirect (loss or alteration of habitat)
Ability to Survive depends on:
1) Mobility
2) Ability to Seek Shelter
Ability to Survive depends on:
3) Arboreal dwelling
4) Physiologic avoidance (aestivation)
Sonoran Desert Toad
Main effect of fire on animals is on
their habitat
Habitat-Resources needed to support a
viable population over space and
through time
4 Components
1) Food
2) Cover
3) Water
4) Space
Benefits of HabitatKirtland's warbler
Detrimental
Effects of Fire
to HabitatMexican spotted
owl
Habitat
Trade-offs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vrTRg3WnDI
Migrating birds flock to grasslands treated with prescribed fire. (USFWS)
2009 Victoria, Australia Fires
wombat
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.
California scrub
drainage, 2007,
wildlife motion
detectors
9:01 am
9:45 am Santa Ana
winds trigger
camera
9:10 am
4:50 am
11:12 pm