Deers may help prevent wildfires in California
In the fossil record, scientists have noticed something else that is amazing, or at least rare, although less so than in extinct animals. Charcoal. Many of them, a beautiful layer formed in many landscapes after the disappearance of large animals.
Free-living ungulates, especially deer, can negatively affect tree regeneration by consuming and damaging young seedlings and saplings. When their horns rub against mature trees during territorial and rutting behavior, mature trees can be damaged, weakened and eventually killed. However, deer also eat woody plants and thus reduce fuel consumption and the severity of future fires. More specifically, by consuming the shrub understory, deer reduce the likelihood that above-ground wildfires will grow into heavy stands that will kill mature trees. Deer thus prevent the possibility of forest fires; it thus contributes to the survival of mature trees and to the long-term storage of carbon in the ecosystem, because mature trees are, together with the soil, an important reservoir of carbon in the forest ecosystem.
That can’t be a coincidence. The loss of animals appears to make ecosystems more vulnerable to fire—a possibility that has both worrisome and hopeful implications. The early 21st century is a time of increasing wildfires and continued destruction, but perhaps protection can help prevent fires.
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