How wildfires affect animal and plant populations is a complex ecological issue. Robert Whelan examines fire as an ecological agent and discusses how populations of organisms are affected by its passage. Drawing examples from several continents, the author studies the impact of fires on individual organisms, populations, and communities. He looks at the effects on ecological processes such as predator-prey, and plant-herbivore interactions, and summarizes the major aspects of ecology that are of particular importance to fire control--both protection against wildfires and fire as a management...