what is pyric herbivory?
grazing driven by fire patterns
How does the conventional approach to understanding fire and grazing differ from the pyric herbivory approach?
conventional approach is studying different methods on patches and not at a landscape approach. Pyric herbivory approach looks at fire in patches then looking at a landscape and watching how animal roam across the landscape.
Using three brief points summarize the findings.
Patch/burning and allow grazers to freely roam
Key thing is that patches varied in time! Not every patch is responding the same in terms of recovery.
they averaged a moderate grazing with heavy use of bun area and light use of unburned patches. The essentially preffered burned area. They preffered moderate anounts of disturbance.
pyric grazing response can be dependent on —–
site
draw a diagram explaining the relationship of grazing and fire
what are factors that are known to affect the grazing fire interaction?
- Grassland type. characyersiics (structure, height, potential for patch contrast)
- grazing pressure
- landscape charactersitics
- environmental influences like precipitation
- non-native plant species alters fire and grazing behaviour
- size of landscape or remnant patch
- many unknowns!
Conservtion Burning:
re-introducing and maintaing fire as a process within an historic, ecological context.
Controlled burning:
Planned application and confinement of fire to a pre-selected area. Considers time and aplace and control is antiipated and applied
Prescribed burning:
systematically planned burning of an ares when weather and vegetstion favor a particular method and intensity of burning that can be expected to acheive planned benefits or outcomes.
why would we use fire?
- reduces hazardous fuels, protecting humans from extreme fires
- minimizes the spread of pest insects and disease
- remoes unwanted species that threaten species native to an ecosystem
- provides forage for game
- improves habitat for threatened and endangered species
- recycles nutrients back to the soil
- promote the growth of trees, wildflowers and other plants
what are different types of fire techniques?
- backing fire
- head-strip fire
- flanking fire
- point source
- circular ring fire
when developing a management plan what is the different variations you need to consider?
- time
- year
- season
- size
- frequency
- type of burn
- location
- environment
- other disturbances
