Fire in North American Wetland Ecosystems and Fire-Wildlife Relations: An Annotated Bibliography


25. Bliss, L. C., and R. W. Wein. 1972. Plant community responses to disturbances 
         in the Western Canadian Arctic. Can. J. Bot. 50:1097-1109.

Tundra fires destroy most of the aboveground plant cover and increase the depth of the soil active layer. Fire stimulates growth of sheathed cottonsedge and bluejoint reedgrass. Dwarf heath recovers rapidly through rhizomes; lichens and mosses showed no early recovery. The different plant community, topographic, soil, ground ice landscape units responded differently to the surface disturbances tested to date (fire, crude oil spill, seismic testing, road construction, vehicle movements). [From authors' abstract]

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