Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Section III
Comparative Ecology, Evolution
and Management
Here we utilize those points of convergence and divergence between mediterranean-
type climate (MTC) ecosystems to develop a synthesis that reveals emergent properties
not evident by study of any one region alone. Comparative study of plant traits,
functional types and community responses to fire provides insight into selective factors
driving the evolution and ecological assembly of fire-prone plant communities. Feed-
back processes are crucial to understanding evolution on such landscapes. Fire
provides a challenge to understanding selective forces because, although inclusive
fitness theory can explain fire-adaptive traits, such traits are dependent on community-
level assembly that contributes to fire spread. MTC regions exhibit differences in
climate and geology that have led to diverse fire environments, and account for many
differences in trait evolution and community assembly. Humans have long been
attracted to MTC regions but have not always adapted successfully to these fire-prone
landscapes. Urban and peri-urban populations have been highly vulnerable to wild-
fires in some MTC regions, with differences in vulnerability between regions being due
largely to innate differences in fuel loads of indigenous vegetation types and profound
differences in population density.
