Abstract
Cerrado tree species can survive fire by resprouting. Generally, large and less damaged plants produce new branches and leaves from stem buds (aerial), whereas small and highly injured individuals would resprout from the stem base or from underground organs (basal). We compared the three most common Cerrado woody plant species in a savanna area of the IBGE Ecological Reserve, Brasilia, Brazil, aiming to verify if the resprouting strategy (aerial or basal) differed between species and if that was related to plant size. Guapira noxia had small-sized plants, a higher percentage of trunk charred and more individuals with basal resprouting, while Eriotheca pubescens had large-sized plants with a greater intensity of aerial resprouting, Basal resprouting was associated with disturbance severity for Dalbergia miscolobium, while plant size was associated with aerial resprouting for E. pubescens. None of variables explained the variation in resprouting of G. noxia. The results showed that the post-fire regeneration strategy varied according to the species, confirming other studies of post-fire resprouting.
Highlights
Fire has been occurring in the Brazilian savannas (Cerrado) for 10 million years (Simon et al 2009; Simon & Pennington 2012) and many Cerrado trees have survived fires because of traits such as thicker bark (Dantas & Pausas 2013) which protects stems from high fire temperatures and prevent topkill, or deciduous leaves that are less vulnerable to fire or herbivory damage (Lucena et al 2015)
Guapira noxia had small-sized plants, a higher percentage of trunk charred and more individuals with basal resprouting, while Eriotheca pubescens had large-sized plants with a greater intensity of aerial resprouting, Basal resprouting was associated with disturbance severity for Dalbergia miscolobium, while plant size was associated with aerial resprouting for E. pubescens
For E. pubescens, diameter and height were negatively correlated to basal resprouts (BR) (p=0.02 and p=0.02, respectively), while they were strongly positively correlated to aerial resprouting (AR) (p
Summary
Fire has been occurring in the Brazilian savannas (Cerrado) for 10 million years (Simon et al 2009; Simon & Pennington 2012) and many Cerrado trees have survived fires because of traits such as thicker bark (Dantas & Pausas 2013) which protects stems from high fire temperatures and prevent topkill, or deciduous leaves that are less vulnerable to fire or herbivory damage (Lucena et al 2015). Among Cerrado woody plants, the main consequences of burning are partial to complete loss of aerial biomass and, in more severe cases, plant death (Coutinho 1982; Hoffmann 1998; Hoffmann & Solbrig 2003; Hayashi & Appezzato-da-Glória 2007; Hoffmann et al 2009) In this phytogeographic domain, tree species may survive fires by resprouting (from basal, aerial and below-ground buds, Clarke et al 2013) and resprouter species will have an advantage - compared to species growing from seeds - if burnings become more frequent (Ojeda et al 2005). Large individuals are less affected by fire and may avoid topkill
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