Citation: Kalfas, D.; Kalogiannidis, S.; Chatzitheodoridis, F.; Margaritis, N. The Other Side of Fire in a Changing Environment: Evidence from a Mediterranean Country. Fire 2024, 7, 36. https://doi.org/10.3390/ fire7020036 Academic Editor: Grant Williamson Received: 26 November 2023 Revised: 31 December 2023 Accepted: 24 January 2024 Published: 25 January 2024 Copyright: © 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). fire Article The Other Side of Fire in a Changing Environment: Evidence from a Mediterranean Country Dimitrios Kalfas 1, * , Stavros Kalogiannidis 2, * , Fotios Chatzitheodoridis 3 and Nikolaos Margaritis 4 1 Department of Agriculture, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Western Macedonia, 53100 Florina, Greece 2 Department of Business Administration, University of Western Macedonia, 51100 Grevena, Greece 3 Department of Management Science and Technology, University of Western Macedonia, 50100 Kozani, Greece; fxtheodoridis@uowm.gr 4 Centre for Research and Technology Hellas/Chemical Process and Energy Resources Institute (CERTH/CPERI), 50200 Ptolemaida, Greece; n.margaritis@certh.gr * Correspondence: aff00539@uowm.gr (D.K.); aff00056@uowm.gr (S.K.) Abstract: In forested ecosystems all over the world, usually, fire is the main disturbance, and due to global climate change, its effects are worsening in many areas. Although fire impacts have been studied for many years, integrative analyses of their effects on various ecosystem services (ES) at different scales are uncommon. This study tries to assess the ecological role of fire in a changing environment, focusing on a Mediterranean country. Data were collected by the use of an online questionnaire in Greece, where the summer fires in the last decades have had significant impacts on the environment and the economy and, in many cases, there were many human and animal victims from them. The sample size of the survey was 384 workers in the primary production sector from all over the country. The study showed that fire has several effects on animal husbandry, the quality of soil nutrients and fertility, the overall vegetation cover, and on general biodiversity. It seems that the degree to which fire has an effect on ecosystem components depends on the intensity, frequency, and length of the fires. Additionally, the frequency, intensity, and length of fire affect the impacts of fire on herbaceous plant, woody vegetation, soil physical qualities, and on the different animals’ habitats. Keywords: fire; ecosystems; sustainability of ecological systems; biodiversity; atmosphere; climate change 1. Introduction A significant portion of the terrestrial ecosystems in the globe are affected by fire, a major ecological disturbance that affects a variety of geographic areas and biomes. Fire may significantly disrupt critical ecological processes, burn enormous quantities of biomass, change the characteristics of the soil, and affect the hydrological and biochemical cycles. From a biogeographical standpoint, fire has also been crucial to the development of plants, for example by encouraging certain useful features such as re-sprouting [1]. As a result, it is also commonly recognized that fire has an impact on worldwide patterns of biodiversity and plant distribution. The precise consequences of a particular fire rely on both ecosystem traits (such as whether an ecosystem is fire adapted or fire sensitive) and fire characteristics (such as severity, magnitude, or frequency). Impacts from a single fire may vary both geographically and across many ecosystem elements (soil, vegetation, etc.). Notably, the forces driving global change are changing the present fire regimes [2–4]. Purnomo et al. [5] noted that ecosystem services relate to different conditions and processes through which natural ecosystems, and the species that make them up, sustain and fulfill human life. Fire is commonly recognized as a major factor impacting many ecosystem services due to its considerable environmental consequences [6–8]. As a matter of fact, wildfires are often cited as one of the primary disturbances that negatively impact Fire 2024, 7, 36. https://doi.org/10.3390/fire7020036 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/fire