A Burning Story: The Role of Fire in the History of Life
2009/07/01 by Juli G. Pausas, Jon E. Keeley · 1,214 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Archaeology #Biology #Climate change #Ecology #Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies #Ecosystem #Environmental ethics #Environmental resource management #Environmental science #Fire ecology #Fire effects on ecosystems #Fire history #Fire regime #Geography #Geology and Paleoclimatology Research #Natural (archaeology) #Sustainability #Terrestrial ecosystem
paper · doi:10.1525/bio.2009.59.7.10
published in BioScience 59(7), 593-601 (Oxford University Press)
openalex publication_date 2009/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
Abstract
Ecologists, biogeographers, and paleobotanists have long thought that climate and soils controlled the distribution of ecosystems, with the role of fire getting only limited appreciation. Here we review evidence from different disciplines demonstrating that wildfire appeared concomitant with the origin of terrestrial plants and played an important role throughout the history of life. The importance of fire has waxed and waned in association with changes in climate and paleoatmospheric conditions. Well before the emergence of humans on Earth, fire played a key role in the origins of plant adaptations as well as in the distribution of ecosystems. Humans initiated a new stage in ecosystem fire, using it to make the Earth more suited to their lifestyle. However, as human populations have expanded their use of fire, their actions have come to dominate some ecosystems and change natural processes in ways that threaten the sustainability of some landscapes.
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