Fire shapes the distribution of savanna and forest through complex interactions involving
climate, resources and species traits. Based on data from central Brazil, we propose that …

It is difficult to find references to fire in general textbooks on ecology, conservation biology or
biogeography, in spite of the fact that large parts of the world burn on a regular basis, and …

This paper is the first global study of the extent to which fire determines global vegetation
patterns by preventing ecosystems from achieving the potential height, biomass and …

MODIS primary production products (MOD17) are the first regular, near-real-time data sets
for repeated monitoring of vegetation primary production on vegetated land at 1-km …

Savannas are defined based on vegetation structure, the central concept being a
discontinuous tree cover in a continuous grass understorey. However, at the high‐rainfall …

There is growing interest in the application of alternative stable state (ASS) theory to explain
major vegetation patterns of the world. Here, we introduce the theory as applied to the …

A recent controversy concerns whether plant traits that are assumed to be adaptations to fire
originally evolved in response to selective factors other than fire. We contribute to this …

A plant's growth rate is seen as a central element of its ecological strategy, and as
determined by its traits. Yet the literature is inconsistent about the empirical correlation …

The savannahs of Asia remain locally unrecognized as distinctive ecosystems, and continue
to be viewed as degraded forests or seasonally dry tropical forests. These colonial-era …

Water availability is the most important factor determining tree species distribution in the
tropics, but the underlying mechanisms are still not clear. In this study, we compared …