A literature survey: the effects of forest fire on ecology and regeneration

Abstract

The extreme natural disturbance could destroy the structure and the composition of the forest (Chen 2009). The damage caused by forest fire can be divided into three parts: natural resources, ecological factors and the cost of rescuing the burned areas (Zhou 2007). The average burned area in Canada in the past 25 years was 2.3 million ha per year. But the forest fire has two-sided effects. On the one hand, the light or periodic forest fire can facilitate the flow of nutrients and energy, improving the stability and maintain the biodiversity in the forest ecosystem, which also can increase the productivity of the stand. On the other hand, severe forest fire not only cause damage to resources and the environment but also bring economic losses and even casualties to people. However, planned fires are also part of forest sustainable management (Bigelow 2012). The purpose to classify the effects of forest fire is to improve the process of management during regeneration and make prescription to prevent damage to forest resources. The first part of this thesis is a literature review of information on the effects of forest fire on ecology. The second part is to illustrate the impact of the forest fire in the stand on ecology and regeneration. It can provide the diagnostic keys to determine what kind of forest management plan should be implemented. The final part is to discuss the effects of different intensity of forest fire on ecology and regeneration.