The two sides of a coin: How do natural disturbances perturb forest ecosystems?

For the last few months there has been lots of news about forest fires in Australia, a natural seasonal phenomenon. However, both the location and extent of these bushfires are novel. You might be wondering what effect fire and, more generally, disturbances could have on forest ecosystems. One way of estimating it would be to use multiple ecological indices to quantify the amount of change induced by a disturbance.