Is Afroalpine Plant Biodiversity Negatively Affected by High-Altitude Fires?

This chapter shows that fires have only small and mostly transitory effects on the biodiversity and structure of lower Afroalpine grasslands. Large-scale fires are especially common in semihumid to semiarid environments all over the globe. The impact of fires on Afroalpine environments has been studied less extensively, but they clearly play an important role in defining the ecosystem. The overall drought-triggered fire frequency is of little interest for Afroalpine ecology unless the spatial extent of the fire events is known, because what matters is the frequency with which given vegetation stand is hit by fires. The severe fires of the next extreme dry season in 1999 consumed most of the remaining intact high-altitude vegetation. Overall plant species richness of Afroalpine grasslands was not adversely affected by fires on Mt. Kilimanjaro, and tussock grasslands had recovered completely when visited 4 years after the fire.