A burning story: The role of fire in the history of life

9 páginas, 6 figuras, 1 tabla.Ecologists, biogeographers, and paleobotanists have long thought that climate and soils controlled the distribution of ecosystems, with the role of fire getting only limited appreciation. Here we review evidence from different disciplines demonstrating that wildfire appeared concomitant with the origin of terrestrial plants and played an important role throughout the history of life. The importance of fire has waxed and waned in association with changes in climate and paleoatmospheric conditions. Well before the emergence of humans on Earth, fire played a key role in the origins of plant adaptations as well as in the distribution of ecosystems. Humans initiated a new stage in ecosystem fire, using it to make the Earth more suited to their lifestyle. However, as human populations have expanded their use of fire, their actions have come to dominate some ecosystems and change natural processes in ways that threaten the sustainability of some landscapes.This work has been partially financed by the Spanish projects PERSIST (CGL2006-07126/BOS) and GRACCIE (SCD2007-00067, Consolider-Ingenio 2010, CEAM). Centro de Investigación sobre Desertificación is financed by Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, the University of Valencia, and Generalitat Valenciana. We thank the reviewers for their insights. This research was part of the US Geological Survey Multi-hazards Demonstration Project. Any use of trade, product, or firm names in this publication is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the US government.Peer reviewe