Abstract
The objective of this work was to evaluate resprouting features and mortality in Cerrado woody plants after annual controlled fires (in 1998, 1999 and 2000) in a campo sujo area (an open savanna physiognomy) of 2500 m2 at the Reserva Ecológica do IBGE, Brasília-DF, Brazil. The area was protected against fire for 23 years prior to the fires. All plants of the woody layer with diameter larger than 2.0 cm at 30 cm from soil level were tagged and identified. At about one year after each controlled fire the damage type and the number of basal and underground sprouts for each individual were recorded. Stem diameter and height were measured for each marked sprout. A total of 1307 sprouts were tagged and measured. The main impact of fire on resprouting was a decrease in the number of new sprouts after each controlled fire: 684 sprouts after the first burning to 248 after the third burning. Mortality of sprouts was 34.8% and 37.8% after the 1999 and 2000 fires. A decrease in the number of sprouts with a diameter smaller than 1.0 cm after the successive fires was also observed, indicating that fires at one-year intervals resulted in alterations in the structure of the woody vegetation in the area. The species mortality rates were higher after the first controlled fire. However, it seems that there is no relation between sprouting capacity and species survival. The species that show mortality rates lower than 10% also showed a variety of sprouting capacity.
Highlights
After fires, Cerrado woody vegetation will sprout in a short period (Coutinho, 1990)
The number of individuals with basal and/or underground sprouts suffering topkill increased after the 1999 fire and after the succeeding one
There were no significant differences between the fires for the different sprout types: aerial, basal and underground sprouts (Friedman test (Fr) 5 1.0; P . 0.05), basal and underground (Fr 5 5.7; P . 0.05) and aerial (Fr 5 1.4; P . 0.05)
Summary
Cerrado woody vegetation will sprout in a short period (Coutinho, 1990). This resprouting capacity is due to various adaptations: the presence of tubers that store water and nutrients (Rizzini & Heringer, 1962), the high insulation capacity of thick bark (Rocha-Silva & Miranda, 1996), and protection of apical buds by a sleeve of densely packed persistent leaf bases (Coutinho, 1990). Sprouting is a common vegetative recovery event after fire (Frost & Robertson, 1987; Kauffman, 1991; Agee, 1993; Vesk, 2006), frequent fires should favour those species with the most effective resprouting capacity (Bond & Wilgen, 1996; Hoffmann, 1999; Braz et al, 2000).
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