Iranian Researchers Offer New Method for Post-Fire Recovery of Plant Biodiversity
"Studying the process of vegetation recovery with nurse plants in the post-fire era and in fire-damaged ecosystems in different climates" was the title of Maral Bashirzadeh's postdoctoral research project, which was sponsored by the Iran National Science Foundation (INSF).
“Every year there are many fires in the pastures across the country. Wildfires are a destructive phenomenon that can severely damage the vegetation and disrupt the functions of the ecosystem such as plant biodiversity, water conservation and accumulation of nutrients in soil,” Bashirzadeh, a Ph.D in plant ecology biology from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad said.
“Various studies and researches show that it is a necessity to recover ecosystems destroyed by fire in order to provide food and create a sustainable environment for living creatures. More importantly, plant biodiversity gets seriously damaged in the fire in terms of its structure and species composition. The fire causes a decrease in shrubs, but an increase in long-standing wheat,” she continued.
“There are various methods to restore vegetation in ecosystems destroyed by fire. Seeding of indigenous plants and direct recovery have been offered as appropriate methods for biodiversity recovery in burned pastures,” the ecosystem researcher added.
“Nurse plants are any plant species in arid and semi-arid ecosystems that help facilitate the establishment and recovery of other plants and play a key role in vegetation recovery. These types of plants have special functional traits that increase their ability to tolerate harsh environmental conditions and settle on barren grounds,” Bashirzadeh further said, adding, “Also, these plants help to improve soil fertility by maintaining soil moisture and increasing nutrients. They can also provide a substrate for the presence of different plant species.”
She went on to say that her research can be helpful in different fields of studies such as rangeland science, management and restoration of pastures after fire and understanding the potential of biodiversity recovery using existing resources.
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