how can ecologists help in understanding bushfire behaviour?

Answer 1

First of all, the term "ecologist" is made up of two parts - "eco" means "home" and "-ologist" is someone who studies something academically. So an 'ecologist" is someone who studies the planet and the systems which are going on in the natural areas of our "home"...

The ecologists role in bushfire behaviour is to study and try to understand the following:
1. what allows bushfires to occur: usually a human agent like arsonists, but there are naturally-occurring fires too which are most often as the result of lightning striking the ground;
2. what triggers them:seasonal and climatic factors - more happen in summer when everything is dry and there's not much rainfall;
3. what makes them move at the rate they do: the fuel load in the forest (or the amount of dead vegetation);
4. the time since the last fire: which has an important role in that the longer it is between fires the more fuel accumulates, especially in drier forests;
5. the type of forest that the fire happens in: an Australian dry Eucalypt forest like those on the East coast and south western West Australia are going to burn much more fiercely than a deciduous European forest. This is mainly because the Euc forests of Australia have evolved with fire and most actually NEED to be burnt periodically; in fact some species (like E. Fastigata or the Brown Barrel and the ubiquitous Banksia) cannot propogate without a fire to crack their seed pods;
6. The role of the ash bed which happens after a fire also plays a vital role - it's like a great big fertiliser layer!;
7. The Eucalypt forests are also capable of a thing called "epicormic budding" which means that the trees can produce a new branch from anywhere on their trunk from the ground up.

This is nowhere near all the factors which are studied by ecologists to give them and us an understanding of bushfires, but it will give you some idea of the complex nature of a fire and why ecologists play a role in their management.

Hope this helps!

Love and Light,

Jarrah
btw. thanks! you've just helped me get to level three!!!