how can fire be harmful and beneficial to the ecosystem?

Answer 1

Fire obviously destroys things, kills plants and sometimes animals, but in general, it is not very destructive to ecosystems. Usually, when fire causes damage to an ecosystem, it is due to human intervention.

In areas where fires occur naturally, the ecosystem and the species in it are adapted to fire. For example, grassy scrub plants have adapted so their seeds germinate only after the high temperatures attained in a fire. Trees such as the pitch pine have adapted with thick bark that insulates from fire, and the ability to resprout after parts of the tree are killed. By contrast, most other pines cannot resprout. A stand of pitch pines will survive a fire that could destroy a stand of white pines. Hardwood trees such as shagbark hickories and certain kinds of white oaks are more adapted to fire. In general, trees with shaggy bark are well-adapted to fire. Trees with smooth bark (like a beech tree) are usually more susceptible.

When humans come in, they often prevent burning. Slowly, the plants adapted to fire become displaced by plants that are not adapted to fire. Being adapted to fire is a tradeoff--many of the aspects of being adapted to fire will harm plants if there is no fire. Pitch pines require more sun than white pines, for instance. And some plants will not even reproduce unless there is a fire. Thus, when a fire occurs, the ecosystem is devastated--the fire grows out of control, and plants do not resprout. The populations of plants that were adapted to fire are absent and the ecosystem cannot easily recover from the fire.

Think of it like exercise--if you exercise weekly you stay in shape, but if you don't do it for a while, and then you overexert yourself, you can injure yourself, or at the very least you end up very sore.

Ecosystems adapted to fires let the fire be beneficial in a number of ways. The fire releases various mineral nutrients back into the environment. It clears out dead brush and makes room for new things to grow. And of course, it kills plants that are not adapted to fire--thus preventing the sort of catastrophe I described above. This is the most important part of fire--because fires regularly occur in certain areas naturally, it's important for them to occur in order to kill off things that cannot survive fires. Otherwise, these plants would take over, and then when there was a fire, the whole ecosystem would be destroyed.

Answer 2

Periodic fires in forests prevent disastrous fires from occurring because they clean out the dead material on the ground. If it's too long between fires, then the eventual fire burns too hot and kills trees.

Periodic fires maintain prairies and other grasslands because the native prairie grasses and forbs can quickly grow back while the fire kills trees and shrubs. Native Americans used to set fires to burn off the grasslands.

Other benefits:
-- some seeds won't grow until they've been heated by a fire.
-- blackened vegetation absorbs sunlight and heats the earth more quickly in the spring so the plants get a head start
-- burning off a grassland removes the dead vegetation that might waste valuable precipitation if the rain soaks into the dead plant matter and evaporates directly into the air instead of reaching the ground

Answer 3

Fire is harmful to ecosystems when it is very hot and uncontrolable when there is to much fuels on the ground. Some pine ecosystems must have fire to exist, (ex. Longleaf pine) for seed germination and to control competition. Fire does return nutrients to the soil. Smokey the Bear was wrong about forest fires in that fires are a natural occurrence and with out fires, forest litter has increased so much fuel in our forests that when it does burn you get to see it on tv because it is out of control. Today, US forest service uses fire for two reasons : 1. to control forest floor fuels and 2 as a management precription.

Answer 4

Fire can be damaging in several ways. It can destroy habitat and food for animals. It can destroy plants that hold soil together, leading to erosion. The resulting smoke can block sunlight and make it harder for animals to breath.

On the other hand, fire can clear overgrowth and dead vegetation, returning nutrients back to the soil. That is why park services now conduct controlled burns.

Answer 5

Fire propegates new growth the shoots feed and attract wildlife that attracts other wildlife and all is renewed. If the burn is not out of control it benefits the environment but when it is out of control it can also have a devestating effect adding to air pollution and loss of species

Answer 6

It is beneficial when it burns conservatives.
It is harmful when it burns conservationists.

No seriously, it is beneficial because it produces carbon dioxide, which plants need to live.

It is harmful when it produces too much carbon dioxide, and cause global warming, and we can't live.