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Recommended: The importance of fires in the ecosystem

1. Introduction
This review assesses the role of fire in ecosystem within theoretical framework of disturbance. Fire has essentially been considered disturbance which represents one of the oldest forms of interaction between human and environment. This review traces the history of fire and various types of interaction between human and environment in which fire has played a central role. There are total seven sections in this review. Followed by introduction to disturbance and disturbance regime, it discusses the fire as one of the disturbance along with major events in the history of fire. Fourth and fifth section deals with analysis of role of fire in shaping vegetation structure and its role as one of the forces of evolution respectively. The various uses of fire as a resource extraction tool have been highlighted in section six. The review concludes with highlighting the possible future direction of research in fire ecology.
This review largely focuses on the forest ecosystem, although relevant examples from other ecosystems have been taken to explain certain phenomenon. Analysis of use of fire as management tool is based on the case studies from India only.
2. Concept of disturbance and disturbance regime
Disturbance is a central concept in ecology, origin of which is as old as the discipline of ecology itself. There is no single of definition of disturbance. It has been conceptualized in number of ways, which has lead to its multiple definitions. The variations in the definition should not be seen as confusion in theoretical understanding of this concept. Rather, it represents various treatment of this concept by taking phenomenon or process of interest under consideration. Following four examples of definition of dis...

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...and make the accessible for various kinds of activities. The actual impact that these practices exerts is debated. However, use of fire inside protected forest areas . Fire suppression may increase the vulnerability of ecosystem to fire as it leads to building up of massive fuel, which if triggered by any ignition source may result in large scale devastation. Fire suppression has also resulted in to shifting of vegetation as fire tolerant species gradually gets replaced by fire prone species. There could be complete shift in vegetation (grassland getting converted to shrubland).
These examples illustrated that while putting a blanket ban on use of fire, we have taken into consideration the various ways for which fire is used. If used in a controlled manner, it can be one of effective resource management tools.
7. Conclusion and further direction
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