Many terrestrial ecosystems are fire prone, such that their composition and structure are largely due to their fire regime. Regions subject to regular fire have exceptionally high levels of species richness and endemism, and fire has been proposed as a major driver of their diversity, within the context of climate, resource availability and environmental heterogeneity. However, current fire‐management practices rarely take into account the ecological and evolutionary roles of fire in maintaining biodiversity. Here, we focus on the mechanisms that enable fire to act as a major ecological and evolutionary force that promotes and maintains biodiversity over numerous spatiotemporal scales. From an ecological perspective, the vegetation, topography and local weather conditions during a fire generate a landscape with spatial and temporal variation in fire‐related patches (pyrodiversity), and these produce the biotic and environmental heterogeneity that drives biodiversity across local and regional scales. There have been few empirical tests of the proposition that ‘pyrodiversity begets biodiversity’ but we show that biodiversity should peak at moderately high levels of pyrodiversity. Overall species richness is greatest immediately after fire and declines monotonically over time, with postfire successional pathways dictated by animal habitat preferences and varying lifespans among resident plants. Theory and data support the ‘intermediate disturbance hypothesis’ when mean patch species diversity is correlated with mean fire intervals. Postfire persistence, recruitment and immigration allow species with different life histories to coexist. From an evolutionary perspective, fire drives population turnover and diversification by promoting a wide range of adaptive responses to particular fire regimes. Among 39 comparisons, the number of species in 26 fire‐prone lineages is much higher than that in their non‐fire‐prone sister lineages. Fire and its byproducts may have direct mutagenic effects, producing novel genotypes that can lead to trait innovation and even speciation. A paradigm shift aimed at restoring biodiversity‐maintaining fire regimes across broad landscapes is required among the fire research and management communities. This will require ecologists and other professionals to spread the burgeoning fire‐science knowledge beyond scientific publications to the broader public, politicians and media.

中文翻译：

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火是地球生物多样性的主要驱动力

许多陆地生态系统容易着火，因此它们的组成和结构在很大程度上取决于它们的火灾状况。经常发生火灾的地区具有极高的物种丰富度和特有性，在气候、资源可用性和环境异质性的背景下，火灾被认为是其多样性的主要驱动因素。然而，当前的火灾管理实践很少考虑到火灾在维持生物多样性方面的生态和进化作用。在这里，我们关注使火成为主要生态和进化力量的机制，在众多时空尺度上促进和维持生物多样性。从生态学的角度来看，植被，火灾期间的地形和当地天气条件会在与火灾相关的斑块（热多样性）中产生具有空间和时间变化的景观，并产生生物和环境异质性，从而推动当地和区域范围内的生物多样性。对“热多样性产生生物多样性”这一命题的实证检验很少，但我们表明，生物多样性应该在中等高的热多样性水平上达到顶峰。整体物种丰富度在火灾后立即最大，随着时间的推移单调下降，火灾后的演替途径由动物栖息地偏好和常驻植物的不同寿命决定。当平均斑块物种多样性与平均火灾间隔相关时，理论和数据支持“中间干扰假设”。火后坚持，招募和移民允许具有不同生活史的物种共存。从进化的角度来看，火灾通过促进对特定火灾状况的广泛适应性反应来推动人口流动和多样化。在 39 个比较中，26 个易发生火灾的谱系的物种数量远高于其非易发生火灾的姐妹谱系。火及其副产品可能具有直接的诱变作用，产生可导致性状创新甚至物种形成的新基因型。火灾研究和管理社区需要进行范式转变，旨在在广阔的景观中恢复生物多样性维持火灾制度。这将需要生态学家和其他专业人士将科学出版物之外的新兴火灾科学知识传播给更广泛的公众，