How can a forest fire affect a coniferous forest?

Answer 1

destroy it of course.

Answer:

Forest fires are usually seen as totally negative events. This is only partly true when applied to wood harvesting opportunities and the effects on human communities. Modern forest fires result from human intervention in forest management which allows the accumulation of dead wood on the forest fire and the presence of old growth tree.

Forest fires, however serve several useful ends:

• they remove accumulations of dead fall from the forest floor
• they open up areas for new growth
• they open up areas for wildlife passage and browsing on new growth
• some plant species need forest fires to impact seeds and soil for germination
• they return nutrients to the oil
• ash from forest fires adjusts lake pH to counteract acid rain

Additional Answer:

Some commercial forests use fire to clear out the undergrowth. This keeps the ground underneath the canopy free of combustible material. As a result if a fire approaches that particular area, it will not have fuel to continue and it dies.

As implied in the previous answer, when some pinecones burn, they open up. The rising hot air lifts their seeds which spin upwards spinning like helicopter blades. Pine seeds land on the ashes and sprout immediately. Soon new pines sprout on the ashes of the old forest.