This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Wildfires that have swept across Britain's upland moors and lowland heaths in unprecedented tinder-dry conditions have left behind expanses of smoking, blackened vegetation. Once the smoke has cleared, what is recovery going to look like?
How long before the first green shoots of recovery will emerge? Remarkably, the answer to the latter question may be "days" rather than weeks, months or decades. That's because both heaths and moors contain several distinct habitats, each of which responds differently to fire.
Dry lowland heaths are dominated by heather, a dwarf shrub that produces much fine woody tissue—excellent fuel for fires. Fire can readily consume these plants, but the heat can also stimulate germination of seeds buried just below the surface, protected from the worst of the flames. Seedlings may then emerge within months, while younger heather plants that survive the fire tend to branch vigorously afterward.
A recognizable heather canopy can therefore re-establish within a few years. Wet heath behaves differently. Hare's-tail cotton grass and purple moor grass form dense fire-resistant tussocks from which new shoots will emerge within days, while common cotton grass can also regenerate rapidly from its protected root system.
This means a landscape can look dead almost immediately after a fire but begin producing fresh green growth surprisingly quickly. Yet, that isn't the same as a true ecological recovery. Some important plants in wet heath and peatland are far more vulnerable.
Cross-leaved heath, for example, is a more delicate form of heather, and its recovery depends partly on whether its roots remain protected by waterlogging as the fire passes above. Sphagnum, or bog moss, can survive surprisingly intense heat because its waterlogged tissues beneath the surface remain protected. Even if its surface layer is scorched or burned away, the living parts beneath can survive and produce fresh growing tips, albeit slowly.
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