What happens after a grassland fire: how do grasslands and firebreaks recover?

In our recently published paper, we investigated grassland recovery following wildfire and firebreak establishment.

Citation:

Deák B., Süveges K., Gőri Sz., Kapocsi I., Gál L. and Valkó O. (2026): Trade-offs between fire suppression and biodiversity: vegetation recovery in burnt grasslands and firebreaks under different restoration treatments. Fire Ecology, 22: 128.

The study is freely available to read and download here.

Fire has been part of grassland ecosystems in the Carpathian Basin since historical times. Together with flooding and grazing animals, it has shaped the landscape and contributed substantially to maintaining open habitats. Today, however, climate change, frequent droughts and the accumulation of dry plant biomass are increasing the risk of larger and less predictable fires. Such fires may threaten not only natural values but also human safety, as they can spread to farmland, farms and other infrastructure.

Fire in the Hortobágy (photo by Sándor Borza)

Wildfire in the grassland (photo by Sándor Borza)

Fire has been part of grassland ecosystems in the Carpathian Basin since historical times. Together with flooding and grazing animals, it has shaped the landscape and contributed substantially to maintaining open habitats. Today, however, climate change, frequent droughts and the accumulation of dry plant biomass are increasing the risk of larger and less predictable fires. Such fires may threaten not only natural values but also human safety, as they can spread to farmland, farms and other infrastructure.

To suppress rapidly spreading fires, it may be necessary to establish firebreaks that interrupt the continuity of combustible plant material and can thus slow or stop the advancing flames. Firebreaks can therefore play an important role in fire suppression. In grasslands, however, their establishment usually involves soil disturbance, often by disk-harrowing. In protected areas, their location and method of establishment should consequently be selected with care. It is also important to understand how vegetation recovers on firebreaks and which treatments can support the restoration of the original vegetation.

In collaboration with the Hortobágy National Park Directorate, we investigated how vegetation recovered after an extensive but low-intensity grassland fire in the summer of 2022. Our study included both pristine and restored loess grasslands. For three years, we monitored vegetation changes in the burnt areas and in disk-harrowed firebreaks, comparing them with adjacent unburnt reference areas.

Some sections of the firebreaks were left to recover without further intervention after disk-harrowing. Elsewhere, we used a ring roller to level and compact the rough soil surface. In a third treatment, rolling was followed by sowing seeds of locally sourced Festuca rupicola. This allowed us to compare spontaneous recovery, the effects of soil-surface levelling and active grassland restoration.

The firebreak and the three treatments

Our results showed that the low-intensity fire caused only moderate and temporary changes in grassland vegetation. Grassland species recovered well during the first year, and no substantial weed encroachment occurred in the burnt areas over the longer term. One reason is that many perennial dry-grassland plants are adapted to occasional fires: although their above-ground shoots may burn, they can resprout from below-ground organs and stored reserves.

Recovery also began quickly on the firebreaks. Vegetation cover increased rapidly, and grassland species appeared from the first year onwards. Nevertheless, their cover had still not reached the levels observed in the surrounding grasslands after three years. Disk-harrowing removed the original vegetation, while soil disturbance promoted the germination of weed and disturbance-tolerant species present in the soil seed bank. Consequently, weeds and disturbance-tolerant species still accounted for a considerable proportion of the vegetation on spontaneously recovering and rolled firebreaks after three years. These findings show that, although recovery begins quickly, the development of vegetation resembling the surrounding grasslands may take considerably longer.

Rolling alone had only a moderate effect on the rate of recovery, whereas sowing Festuca rupicola substantially suppressed weeds. This vigorous perennial grass rapidly formed a continuous grass matrix that left progressively less space for weed species. At the same time, a dense Festuca stand may also slow the establishment of other valuable grassland species. The most appropriate method for restoring firebreaks should therefore be selected according to the condition of the surrounding grassland, the abundance of weeds and the potential for natural colonisation by grassland species.

Our research highlights the importance of considering fire-safety and biodiversity-conservation objectives together. Firebreaks can play an important role in suppressing wildfires, but in grasslands they should be planned and established with care. After their creation, vegetation recovery should also be monitored over the longer term. Regular monitoring makes it possible to identify persistent weed encroachment or stalled recovery at an early stage and, where necessary, support the development of grassland vegetation through targeted management, such as removing weeds before seed set or applying appropriate mowing, grazing or seed sowing.

It is important to emphasise that our results concern a single summer fire of relatively low intensity. Grassland species may not be able to withstand frequent or high-intensity fires without damage. As the climate becomes drier, uncontrolled fires therefore require increasing attention because they can rapidly cause both conservation and safety problems. Our study focused on vegetation, but extensive fires may affect some groups of animals, such as arthropods and ground-nesting birds, much more severely than plants.

The abstract of the paper is provided below:

Abstract

Background: Wildfire is an important component of many grassland ecosystems, but it is often suppressed in modern landscapes to protect infrastructure and human safety. Disk-harrowed firebreaks are frequently used to stop wildfire spread; however, this method represents a severe soil disturbance that may alter grassland species composition and structure. We studied the effects of a low-intensity growing-season wildfire on the vegetation of pristine and restored Central European dry grasslands, and evaluated vegetation recovery on firebreaks for three years post-fire. Firebreaks were subjected to passive restoration (disk-harrowing), assisted natural regeneration (rolling) or active restoration (rolling combined with grass seed sowing). In total, 180 permanent vegetation plots were surveyed for three years.

Results: Several grassland specialist species were associated with burnt grasslands during the first two post-fire years, but these patterns disappeared by the third year and did not affect overall specialist richness or cover. Fire did not promote disturbance-tolerant or weed species in the long run. Grassland specialists were able to re-establish in disk-harrowed and rolled firebreaks from the seed bank and seed rain; however, their cover remained substantially lower than in reference grasslands. Sowing seeds of the competitive perennial grass Festuca rupicola accelerated the development of a continuous grass cover and substantially reduced the proportion of weeds. Even in the third year after disturbance, firebreak vegetation remained dominated by disturbance-tolerant and weed species. Recovery of specialists was faster in restored grasslands, characterised by species typical of mid-successional stages, than in pristine grasslands.

Conclusion: Low-intensity growing-season wildfire had moderate and temporary effects on dry grasslands, indicating that fire represents an endogenous disturbance to which these communities respond with a short-term internal reorganisation. In contrast, mechanical soil disturbance associated with firebreak establishment represented an exogenous disturbance with longer-lasting effects on vegetation composition and structure. Although species richness of target grassland species recovered quickly, their cover remained lower than in reference grasslands even for the third year. Sowing a dominant perennial grass effectively suppressed weeds, but increased competition may limit the establishment of other grassland species. Our results highlight a trade-off between short-term fire safety and long-term biodiversity conservation, suggesting that firebreak establishment should be cautiously applied and accompanied by appropriate monitoring and targeted management.

Life on the burial mounds of southern Italy – ancient stone mounds as refuges for Mediterranean flora

Our latest article, with Rocco Labadessa as the first author, has been published. Here we were able to indulge our passion for the biodiversity sustained by ancient burial mounds in a new biogeographic region: the Mediterranean :)

The citation of the paper:

Labadessa, R., Vicario, S., Tarantino, C., Valkó, O., & Deák, B. (2026). Life in the graveyard: ancient stone burial mounds as refuges for Mediterranean grassland vegetation. Global Ecology and Conservation, e04361.

The paper is freely available on the journal’s homepage (please click here).

In the Mediterranean landscapes of southern Italy, stone-built mounds preserve the memory of the past. The nearly one hundred burial mounds of the San Magno necropolis were constructed around 2,700–2,800 years ago, between the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age. However, these ancient structures are valuable not only from an archaeological and cultural perspective.

Ancient stone mound in the San Magno necropolis, from the birdseye view.

In a joint Italian–Hungarian study led by Rocco Labadessa (Institute of Environmental Intelligence and Technologies at the Italian National Research Council), we explored the potential role of these stone mounds in conserving threatened species of the Mediterranean flora. This question is particularly important because the region’s semi-natural dry grasslands have declined considerably and become increasingly fragmented over recent decades and centuries. The remaining habitats are further threatened by the abandonment of formerly widespread grazing practices and by the growing populations and increasing disturbance of wild boar.

We found that the rocky surfaces of the burial mounds provide excellent refuges for grassland species that prefer open habitats, while also protecting the soil from severe disturbance, as the stony ground is not particularly attractive to rooting wild boar. The small and varied habitats among the stones create distinctive microclimatic conditions that may also buffer the effects of heat and drought.

As a result, the mounds support more grassland plant species than the surrounding grasslands, including numerous perennial and habitat-specialist species. We also found species on the mounds that were entirely absent from their immediate surroundings. These included the southern Italian endemic feather grass Stipa austroitalica, which is recognized as a species of particular conservation importance under the European Union’s Habitats Directive. This suggests that the burial mounds may have preserved elements of formerly more extensive natural grassland vegetation over long periods of landscape change.

This picture shows very nicely the striking differences between the vegetation of the stone mound and the surrounding grassland matrix.

Although less than a metre high, these ancient structures now function as habitat islands in a profoundly transformed landscape. Protecting them therefore contributes to the conservation of both archaeological heritage and biodiversity. However, the mounds alone cannot safeguard nature: appropriate management of the surrounding grasslands and the maintenance of connections between habitats are equally essential.

The burial mounds of San Magno clearly demonstrate that monuments inherited from humanity’s distant past can also play an important role in nature conservation today.

Resilience of sown grasslands - our new paper in Ecological Solutions and Evidence

Our recent study by Réka Kiss  about the resilience of restored grasslands has recently been published in Ecological Solutions and Evidence.

Kiss, R., Lukács, K., Tóth, K., Tóth, Á., Godó, L., Deák, B., Valkó, O. (2026): Early sowing of multiple species supports the recovery potential of restored grasslands. Ecological Solutions and Evidence 7: e70247. https://doi.org/10.1002/2688-8319.70247

The paper is open access and can be freely downloaded from the journal website (please click here).

In this article, we explore why sowing grasses alone is not sufficient when aiming to establish species-rich grasslands, and why the early introduction of forb species is essential following land abandonment or sowing grass seeds. We examine all this from the perspective of restored grasslands, by evaluating the role of disturbance (i.e. ploughing) in grassland recovery. Our study has a clear practical implication: our results show that we can restore more resilient grasslands if the target forb species are sown together with the grasses, as early as possible.

This is the second study resulting from our common garden experiment that we established in 2014, and we run it until 2022. Between 2014 and 2019 we studied vegetation recovery after nine restoration treatments (combinations of grass and forb sowing, with joint and delayed sowing) and published the first results in Kiss et al. (2022). Then we introduced a severe experimental disturbance – ploughing – to the sown parcels to study resilience of the grasslands restored by different methods.

This was a very interesting study, but also one of our most demanding studies: besides the long-term survey (survey of the 144 plots twice per year for 8 years), we needed to do the yearly maintenance of the experimental site. This involved multiple mowing, raking, sowing, soil preparation. This was a huge work and many thanks to all the people who took part in that!

Restored grassland with large cover of Salvia nemorosa - before ploughing

Grassland restored by grass seed sowing - before ploughing.

The maintenance of this experiment was highly demanding, sometimes mowing was very challenging

EASAC report “Changing Wildfires in Europe” presented at the Cyprus Institute

On 22 January 2026 the Cyprus Institute, the Cyprus Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts, and the European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC) organized a public lecture and presentation of the EASAC report entitled Changing Wildfires - Policy Options for a Fire-literate and Fire-adapted Europe.

In the public lecture, we discussed the main findings of the EASAC report, emphasised the importance of preventive measures in wildfire governance, and also focused on the specific challenges of the Mediterranean region. The lectures were followed by fruitful discussion on these topics and on the relevance on the EU decision of establishing a Wildfire Hub in Cyprus. Many thanks to the organizers for making this super-important and interesting event possible!

The event was live-streamed and can be watched here (from 10:30). 

Please find below some brief information about the panel and the abstract of the event.

Convenor: Prof. Costas N. Papanicolas, President Emeritus, The Cyprus Institute, Director, Research Unit of Climate Crisis and Sustainable Development; The Cyprus Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts

Panelists:

Prof. Thomas Elmqvist, Professor, Stockholm Resilience Center, Stockholm University, Sweden and EASAC Environment Director

Dr. Orsolya Valkó, Research Group Leader, HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research, Hungary

Prof. Efthymis Lekkas, Professor of Dynamic, Tectonic, Applied Geology, and Natural Disaster Management, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Mr. Kostakis A. Papageorgiou, Chief Conservator of Forests, Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development & Environment, Department of Forests

Abstract

“Suppressing fires alone is not sufficient. We need to address the root causes, strengthen efforts to combat climate change, invest in resilient landscapes, and actively engage society in learning to live with fire,” says Dr. Cathelijne Stoof, Co-Chair of EASAC’s Wildfires Working Group.

 

According to the newly published EASAC report Changing Wildfires in Europe, many regions across Europe are experiencing multi-year droughts, significantly increasing the likelihood of extreme wildfire events. On average, wildfires in the European Union currently burn approximately half a million hectares each year—an area roughly equivalent to half the size of Cyprus.

 

The event will examine the escalating wildfire risks across Europe, with a particular focus on the Mediterranean, and assess their implications for Cyprus, the Eastern Mediterranean region, and the proposed European Wildfire Hub. Topics covered will include wildfire risk reduction, prevention strategies, and building fire-resilient societies in Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean, and Cyprus. Experts, policymakers, and stakeholders will convene to explore how EU and regional strategies can transition from reactive fire suppression toward proactive, risk-based land and landscape management. 

Session on Grasslands and Pastoralists at the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) conference

The 2025 Triennial Conference and General Assembly ofthe InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) took place 8-11 December 2025 in Cairo, Egypt, hosted by the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology (ASRT). This is a very interesting and prestigious international conference with the aim to discuss how science can help advancing sound policies, improve public health, promote science excellence and achieve other critical development goals. It was our great honour that one of the sessions of this conference was dedicated to grasslands and pastoralists, and together with excellent colleagues we could show the beauty of these unique ecosystems and pastoral communities as their stewards. We had a very diverse and interesting session and panel discussions.

You can read the abstract and the program of the session below.

Pastoralism and Grasslands: Science and Policy for Regenerative Rangeland Management

Moderator: Thomas Elmqvist, Programme Director EASAC

Rapporteur: Georg Bërveniku-Brunner, Executive Director, EASAC secretariat

Speakers

Gregorio Velasco Gil, Coordinator of the Pastoralist Knowledge Hub, FAO: International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists 2026

Orsolya Valkó, Scientific advisor, HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research, Institute of Ecology and Botany, Hungary: Biodiversity conservation of European grasslands: challenges and opportunities

Batgelder Gantuya, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Mongolia: Rangelands and pastoralists in Asia

Zsolt Molnár, Scientific advisor, HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research, Institute of Ecology and Botany, Hungary: Transdisciplinary research and knowledge systems: who’s knowledge counts

Abstract

The UN General Assembly has declared 2026 the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP) to increase worldwide understanding of the value of grasslands and pastoralism for food security, economy, environment and cultural heritage. Semi-natural grasslands are among the most species-rich ecosystems on Earth, offering a unique example of how long-term, low-intensity human activities can enhance biodiversity.

Their ecological value is closely tied to traditional management practices, such as grazing and mowing, which help maintain their open structure and biodiversity. Steppes and other drylands also harbour outstanding biodiversity that is shaped by the herders and the one billion people living in these ecosystems globally. Today, grasslands are rapidly disappearing in many regions of the world, due to climate change in combination with land use changes including abandonment that leads to secondary succession toward shrubs or forests, or, through intensification (use of fertilizers, frequent mowing, or sowing monocultures) causing biodiversity loss. This session will contribute to the aims of the IYRP and through taking a global view of grasslands and focussing on how to bring multiple knowledge systems together at the table to discuss what policy options and actions are available in different regions for reversing current trends.

Many thanks for EASAC, the European Academies Science Advisory Council for supporting my participation at the conference, for the organizers, and to everyone who made this possible.

How Can Small Grasslands Help Protect Biodiversity in Agricultural Landscapes?

We are very grateful for the support of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH) for supporting our project entitled “How Can Small Grasslands Help Protect Biodiversity in Agricultural Landscapes?” (PI: Balázs Deák), that provides an excellent possibility for studying the importance of small habitat islands (covered with pristine and recovering grasslands) in preserving grassland biodiversity and ecosystem services in intensively used landscapes.

While the primary role of agricultural landscapes is food production, they also hold significant biodiversity potential. Small, pristine grasslands and recovering grassland habitats embedded in agricultural parcels can help maintain populations of several grassland species, thus, they support ecosystem stability and agricultural sustainability. However, these habitats are increasingly threatened by weed and woody encroachment, and by isolation, leading to time-delayed species loss. We investigate the impacts of these processes on grassland biodiversity using ancient burial mounds (so called kurgans) involved into the system of agricultural subsidies (functioning as out-of-production sites). We study the effects of both local- and landscape-level factors such as soil characteristics, microclimate, habitat structure, and the surrounding landscape matrix.

Our main research questions include:

(i) How do weeds spread in recovering grasslands, and can diverse weed communities suppress harmful weeds hindering restoration and agricultural production?

(ii) What happens when woody species encroach grasslands, and how capable are these habitats of self-recovery when woody vegetation is removed?

(iii) How does the biodiversity in isolated grasslands change over time, and what actions can prevent further species loss?

Beyond advancing scientific knowledge, our findings help conservationists, farmers, and policymakers make informed decisions about biodiversity protection and sustainable land use. By understanding the underlying ecological processes, we can improve the design of agri-environmental schemes, support sustainable farming, and restore valuable habitats. This research aligns with EU conservation and restoration objectives and provides scientific evidence to support policies that balance food production with nature conservation. The four-year-long project starts on 1 Jan 2026, we are looking forward to this new and exciting challenge!

Fire in Central European Ecosystems - a very interesting conference

Last week, the first Central European fire ecology conference, entitled 'Fire in Central European Ecosystems', was held in Decin, Czech Republic. The conference presentations dealt with the consequences of forest and grassland fires, post-fire regeneration, and the nature conservation opportunities of prescribed burning. The event was prompted by a huge forest fire in Bohemian Switzerland National Park in July 2022, which burned down 1,200 hectares of land. Many presentations focused on post-fire regeneration and the responses of individual groups of organisms, and we were able to see the burned areas for ourselves during a field trip. It was a very interesting and informative conference with excellent presentations — it was great to see that more and more people are working on fire ecology in Central Europe as well!

We presented two presentations at the conference:

Deák, B., Süveges, K., Gőri, Sz., Kapocsi, I., Valkó, O. (2025): The legacy of wildfires: Grassland vegetation recovery in burned grasslands and differently managed firebreaks.

Valkó, O, Stoof, C, Akala, T, Arianoutsou, M, Arsava, K, Ascoli, D, Bengtsson, J, Castro, R, Engelbrecht, J, Fra Paleo, U, Granström, A, Ibisch, P, Kalabokidis, K, Kandárová, H, Marinšek, A, Knottnerus, A, Metallinou, M, Müller, M, Oliviera, T, Pereira, J, Plieninger, T, Palaiologou, P, Pulido Diaz, J, Saražin, J, Stoyanov, T, Thacker, FN, van der Werf, G, Zerefos, C., Elmqvist, T. (2025): Living with Fire: Policy Recommendations from the EASAC Report on Changing Wildfires in Europe. (keynote talk)

Many thanks to the organizers for the wonderful conference and excursion!

Birch trees grow higher than three metres in some of the areas burned in 2022.

Burned mushroom.

Life has found a way to thrive in the scorched area.

The weather was a bit rainy during the field program ...

The Conference was held at the beautiful Decin castle.

The way up to the castle.

View from the castle to the brewery.

The lecture room was also very nice.