Fire ecology is a branch of ecology that concentrates on the origins of wildland fires and their relationship to the living and nonliving environment. It recognizes that fire is a natural process operating as a component of an ecosystem. It is necessary to look beyond the current state of an ecosystem to understand it. This means investigating its origin, anticipating the future, and studying the processes that take the ecosystem from one stage to the next.
Fire is a catalyst that promotes changes in an ecosystem.
In the 1930s, researchers began to challenge the negative notions about fire. They argued that in some regions, fire was an essential element to allow wildlife and forests to thrive. This idea of fire dependence is a key concept of fire ecology. Fire dependence applies to species of plants that rely on the effects of fire to make the environment more hospitable for their regeneration and growth. For example, fire prepares the soil for seeding by making nutrients more available for plant uptake.