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Fire and Diversity in Canadian Ecosystems

  • Conference paper
Biodiversity, Temperate Ecosystems, and Global Change

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((ASII,volume 20))

Abstract

In Canada, before settlement by Europeans, fire was a dominant feature of most landscapes, with a recurrent passage every 50 to 350 years. Short fire frequencies are typical of the boreal and Great-Lakes St-Lawrence forest regions, whereas long frequencies are found in the coastal forests of British Columbia. A particular forest site may have been visited by fire between 30 to 120 times since forest colonization 7,000 years ago. Before that fire interacted with our current vegetation since at least the Miocene or early Pliocene (30 million and 12 million years ago, respectively) (Hopkins 1967). Clearly, Canadian forest ecosystems have evolved under the selective pressure of fire, leading to fire-adapted ecosystems. The nature of these adaptations varies greatly according to each fire regime typical of biogeographic zones and local conditions.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Petawawa National Forestry Institute, Canadian Forest Service, Chalk River, Ontario, Canada, K0J 1J0

    Luc C. Duchesne

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  1. Luc C. Duchesne
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Canadian Forest Service, 351 St. Joseph Blvd., Hull, Quebec, K1A 1GS, Canada

    Timothy J. B. Boyle  & Christopher E. B. Boyle  & 

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© 1994 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Duchesne, L.C. (1994). Fire and Diversity in Canadian Ecosystems. In: Boyle, T.J.B., Boyle, C.E.B. (eds) Biodiversity, Temperate Ecosystems, and Global Change. NATO ASI Series, vol 20. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-78972-4_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-78972-4_14

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