How could prescribed burning contribute to grassland conservation in Europe? Our new review paper has been published

Our invited review paper about the applicability of prescribed burning for the conservation of European grasslands has recently been published in Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability and Health.

The citation of the paper is

Valkó, O., Deák, B. (2021): Increasing the potential of prescribed burning for the biodiversity conservation of European grasslands. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability & Health doi: 10.1016/j.coesh.2021.100268

The paper is open access, please click here to download.

Our aim was to summarize the knowledge related to the applicability of prescribed burning as a potential conservation tool in European grasslands. Prescribed burning (PB) means a carefully planned and executed application of fire in order to reach a specific management objective. In many fire-prone ecosystems, such as the South American cerrado, the South African fynbos or the North American prairies, PB practices are integral elements of conservation and restoration projects aiming to increase the biodiversity in open landscapes. Contrary, in Europe, most PB projects are related to forest ecosystems and shrublands. We found that there were only a few dozens of experimental PB studies in European grasslands, and the large-scale application of prescribed fire is even more scarce. It would be important to gain knowledge about this cost-effective conservation measure, as based on studies from other continents or ecosystems, PB might be a feasible tool to address conservation problems, such as abandonment, intensification, invasive species and climate change.

Our review emphasises that the currently available knowledge about PB effects in European grasslands is not sufficient to completely evaluate its applicability. In most experiments PB was applied in small plots, resulting in homogeneous fire patterns different from wildfires. None of the European experiments applied natural-like fire regimes, but used two approaches instead: either yearly burning of the same parcels for many years or testing the effect of a single PB event. The first approach does not resemble natural fire regimes and does not allow the regeneration of the vegetation between burns. The second approach often had more promising results, as single PB can have favorable short-term effects, but those are less persistent than in case of a complex fire regime with well-suited fire return intervals.

We suggest that the adaptation of the fire regime concept would considerably increase the practical applicability of the findings of future PB experiments in grassland conservation. The use of sophisticated fire regimes matched to the local site conditions could considerably increase the effectiveness of PB to achieve certain conservation goals. It is important to determine optimal PB regimes based on experimental approaches, paleo-data and traditional ecological knowledge, and incorporate the findings also into the legislation.

We also proposed a decision support framework, which can be applied in the planning phase of PB regimes for evaluating the risks and available knowledge related to the application of PB in a particular site for solving a particular problem. Application is suggested only in those cases when all the potential risks can be controlled based on available knowledge. When it is not possible, further studies are needed before PB application.

Decision support framework for evaluating the risks, benefits and available knowledge related to the application of PB in a particular site for solving a particular problem. Based on the answers to the questions (Q1-4) four alternative decisions (D1-4) exist on the applicability of PB in a certain site. In case of knowledge gaps, we list the most important future research directions (R1-4).

Please find below the abstract and graphical abstract of the paper.

Abstract

Prescribed burning (PB), the planned and controlled application of fire is a well-established tool for biodiversity conservation in a plethora of habitats globally. In European grasslands that are threatened hotspots of biodiversity, PB has the potential to address challenges related to several threats such as abandonment, climate change or invasive species. However, its potential is seldom realized both in experimental and real-world conditions. To increase the potential of PB in the management of European grasslands, we suggest adapting the fire regime concept in future studies and to determine optimal PB regimes based on experimental approaches, paleo-data and the disappearing traditional ecological knowledge. For the evidence-based evaluation of PB applicability, a decision support framework is suggested.