在自然条件下，热带湿润森林很少能发生火灾，不大可能具有适应火灾的能力。因此可以假设，火灾对这些树种的影响是相同的，树木多度的变化仅仅与火灾的燃烧方式有关。换句话说，如果各个树种对相同的火灾具有不同的反应，那么这些树种的树木多度的变化应该是与其生境的偏好和形态相关的。
中国科学院西双版纳热带植物园Johan Slik博士等人通过调查婆罗洲地区以及与该地区邻接火灾地区老龄树木，结合树木形态数据和其对生境的偏好，发现在火灾中，多度会降低的树种具有如下特征：树皮薄，种子休眠期有限，生长在山坡或者山脊；而多度升高则与喜好高光环境，树木低矮，轻质木材，叶子大，种子小和较长的种子休眠时间等因素相关联。被调查物种的多度变化与其形态特征和生境偏好都有显着相关性。这一结论虽然可以很好的解释被调查物种，但是不太具有普适性（R2 = 0.09）。这也就说明，大多数树木的死亡率是随机的，热带湿润森林对火灾的抵抗力很弱。随着火灾频率在湿润森林的升高，热带湿润森林的物种组成很可能最终被改变，甚至导致物种的灭绝。（生 物 谷Bioon.com）
生 物 谷推荐英文摘要
Oecologia doi:10.1007/s00442-010-1764-4
Fire as a selective force in a Bornean tropical everwet forest
J. W. Ferry Slik Floris C. Breman Caroline Bernard Marloes van Beek Charles H. Cannon Karl A. O. Eichhorn Kade Sidiyasa
Abstract Tree species rarely exposed to burning, like in everwet tropical forests, are unlikely to be Wre adapted. Therefore, one could hypothesize that these species are aVected equally by burning and that tree abundance changes are linked solely to Wre behavior. Alternatively, if species do react diVerentially to burning, abundance changes should be linked to tree habitat preference and morphology. Using tree inventories from old-growth and adjacent burned Bornean forest in combination with a database on tree morphology and habitat preference, we test these alternative hypotheses by (1) determining whether species speciWc abundance changes after Wre diVer signiWcantly from equal change, and (2) whether observed abundance changes are linked to species morphology and habitat preference. We found that of 196 species tested, 125 species showed an abundance change signiWcantly diVerent from that expected under our null model of equal change. These abundance changes were signiWcantly linked to both tree morphology and habitat preference. Abundance declines were associated with slope or ridge preference, thin barks, and limited seed dormancy. Abundance increases were associated with high light preference, small adult stature, light wood, large leaves, small seeds and long seed dormancy. While species habitat preference and morphology explained observed abundance increases well, abundance declines were only weakly associated with them (R2 ?0.09). This suggests that most tree mortality was random and everwet tropical
tree species are poorly Wre adapted. As Wre frequencies are increasing in the everwet tropics, this might eventually result in permanently altered species compositions and even species extinctions.
