Kaleidoscope

Forest Fire - Plants do the survival of the fittest race too?
2007/10/22,18:28

Today in the headlines, I came across the news - Wildfires blaze across California. From BBC ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7055721.stm ), I learnt that  40,000 acres  of land was burnt and that 250,000 people had to evacuate their homes.

forest fire Thanks to BBC for the image ( 22 Oct 2007 )

It is a sad news that made me think about how and why forest fires occur ( other than deliberate attempts and carelessness by human ). I visited Wikipedia to learn more about the cause of wildfires - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildfire

Interesting information from wikipedia as below. For the full information, feel free to visit the above URL.  

Some plants encourage fire ( example: Eucalyptus has flammable oils in their leaves ) to eliminate competition from less fire-tolerant fellow species.

Plants have come up with defense mechanisms too , to combat this wildfire. Some plants possess reserve shoots that sprout after a fire, some possess fire resistance seeds

When the evaporation of water in plants is higher than the absorption from the soil, the plants dry out and release the flammable gas ethylene. Thus it also is due to a natural imbalance.

The fire that spreads from tree tops ( known as crown fire ) is the deadliest type of forest fire as it can spread rapidly as opposed to the 'Lower' - Bushes fire or 'Jumping or Spotting fire' which is caused by the carry over of burning leaves and branches by wind from one spot to other.

Thanks to BBC for the picture and Wikipedia for the information.

 
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