Abstract In the recent past, wildfires have received much attention both by science and by the media, especially in relation to deforestation, degradation and climate change and when affecting fire-sensitive ecosystems. On the other hand, fire is a natural process in many ecosystems, in particular those to be considered fire-dependent; here, maintaining natural fire regimes is important to maintain biodiversity and ecosystem services. In many regions of the world we are still in the need for a better understanding of fire effects on plant populations, communities and ecosystems. For instance, responses of individuals and populations to heat and fire can differ among distinct fire-prone ecosystems, and community level responses often vary depending on historical disturbance regimes or the fire regime as such. Effects on ecosystem processes, e.g. on carbon cycles, can vary greatly in scale and are even more difficult to predict. This adds up to uncertainties regarding appropriate fire management strategies, both in fire-prone and fire-sensitive ecosystems. Here, we introduce a set of opinion papers on fires in Brazil and a forthcoming Virtual Special Issue of Flora – Morphology, Distribution, Functional Ecology of Plants on “Fire and vegetation”, with contributions expected from a broad range of topics related to fire, plants, and vegetation. This special issue will contribute to the development not only of more knowledge on fire effects on plants and vegetation, but also to advances in fire management policies in different ecosystems around the world. The main issue, after all, is to go beyond simple classification of fires as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, but rather to develop strategies to deal with changing fire regimes and their effects in a dynamic world increasingly modified by human actions.

中文翻译：

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从灰烬到理解：关于火的意见论文和《植物群》特刊的论文征集

摘要 最近，野火受到科学和媒体的广泛关注，特别是在森林砍伐、退化和气候变化以及影响火灾敏感生态系统时。另一方面，火是许多生态系统中的自然过程，尤其是那些被认为依赖火的生态系统；在这里，维持自然火灾制度对于维持生物多样性和生态系统服务很重要。在世界许多地区，我们仍然需要更好地了解火灾对植物种群、群落和生态系统的影响。例如，个体和种群对热和火的反应在不同的易着火生态系统中可能不同，社区层面的反应通常因历史干扰状况或火灾状况而异。对生态系统过程的影响，例如 在碳循环方面，可能在规模上有很大差异，甚至更难以预测。这增加了有关火灾易发和火灾敏感生态系统中适当火灾管理策略的不确定性。在这里，我们介绍了一套关于巴西火灾的意见论文和即将出版的植物群虚拟特刊——植物的形态学、分布、功能生态学“火灾和植被”，预计将有与火灾相关的广泛主题的贡献，植物, 和植被。本期特刊不仅将有助于发展更多关于火灾对植物和植被影响的知识，还将促进世界各地不同生态系统火灾管理政策的进步。毕竟，主要问题是超越火灾“好”或“坏”的简单分类，