bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
Functional and compositional diversity display a maximum at intermediate levels of fire frequency when modeling the plant-fire feedback
June 2025 • Matilde Torrassa, Gabriele Vissio, Rubén Díaz‐Sierra, Marta Magnani, Maarten B. Eppinga, Mara Baudena
Abstract Fires are generally considered to promote biodiversity, although this relationship can be affected by several factors, including fire regime and ecosystem type. Given the ongoing global change, a better understanding of this connection is needed to assess the extent to which projected increases in fire frequency may affect current biodiversity trends. A major challenge lies in vegetation-fire feedback, which often mediates the changes in fire regime. To shed light on the role of fires in promoting or limi…