Juli G. Pausas Philip W. Rundel William J. Bond Ross A. Bradstock Jon E. Keeley 2011 <p><span>Traits, such as resprouting, serotiny and germination by heat and smoke, are adaptive in fire-prone environments. However, plants are not adapted to fire&nbsp;</span><i>per se</i><span>&nbsp;but to fire regimes. Species can be threatened when humans alter the regime, often by increasing or decreasing fire frequency. Fire-adaptive traits are potentially the result of different evolutionary pathways. Distinguishing between traits that are adaptations originating in response to fire or&nbsp;exaptations&nbsp;originating in response to other factors might not always be possible. However, fire has been a factor throughout the history of land-plant evolution and is not strictly a Neogene phenomenon. Mesozoic fossils show evidence of fire-adaptive traits and, in some lineages, these might have persisted to the present as fire adaptations.</span></p> application/pdf 10.1016/j.tplants.2011.04.002 en Elsevier Fire as an evolutionary pressure shaping plant traits article