Response of hardwood tree regeneration to surface fires, western Chaco region, Argentina

Bravo, Sandra; Kunst, Carlos; Leiva, Marta; Ledesma, Roxana

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2014.04.009

Cited by 38 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…This view lacks generality. The latter authors do not appreciate that not only is the Chaco savanna of Argentina highly fire‐prone (mean fire interval of 3.3 years; Bravo et al, , ) but that widespread resprouting in the Chaco is likely to be a relatively recent phenomenon associated with the Pliocene spread of summer‐rainfall grasslands by analogy with the adjacent Cerrado of Brazil (Simon et al, ). Therefore, weak fire‐stimulated germination is to be expected because of frequent fire (Lamont et al, ) not because of its absence.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolutionary history of fire‐stimulated resprouting, flowering, seed release and germination

Lamont

Yan

2018

Biological Reviews

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Fire has shaped the evolution of many plant traits in fire-prone environments: fire-resistant tissues with heat-insulated meristems, post-fire resprouting or fire-killed but regenerating from stored seeds, fire-stimulated flowering, release of on-plant-stored seeds, and germination of soil-stored seeds. Flowering, seed release and germination fit into three categories of response to intensifying fire: fire not required, weakly fire-adapted or strongly fire-adapted. Resprouting also has three categories but survival is always reduced by increasing fire intensity. We collated 286 records for 20 angiosperm and two gymnosperm families and 50 trait assignments to dated phylogenies. We placed these into three fire-adapted trait types: those associated with the origin of their clade and the onset of fire-proneness [primary diversification, contributing 20% of speciation events over the last 120 million years (My)], those originating much later coincident with a change in the fire regime (secondary diversification, 30%), and those conserved in the daughter lineage as already adapted to the fire regime (stabilisation, 50%). All four fire-response types could be traced to >100 My ago (Mya) with pyrogenic flowering slightly younger because of its dependence on resprouting. There was no evidence that resprouting was always an older trait than either seed storage or non-sprouting throughout this period, with either/both ancestral or derived in different clades and times.Fire-adapted traits evolved slowly in the Cretaceous, 120-65 Mya, and rapidly but fitfully in the Cenozoic, 65-0 Mya, peaking over the last 20 My. The four trait-types climaxed at different times, with the peak in resprouter speciation over the last 5 My attributable to fluctuating growing conditions and increasing savanna grasslands unsuitable for non-sprouters. All experienced a trough in the 40-30-Mya period following a reduction in world temperatures and oxygen levels and expected reduced fire activity. Thick bark and serotiny arose in the Mid-Cretaceous among extant Pinaceae. Heat-stimulated germination of hard seeds is ancestral in the 103-My-old Fabales. Smoke-(karrikin)-stimulated germination of non-hard seeds is even older, and includes the 101-My-old Restionaceae-Anarthriaceae. A smoke/karrikin response is detectable in some fire-free lineages that prove to have a fire-prone ancestry. Among clades that are predominantly fire-prone, absence of fire-related traits is the advanced condition, associated either with increased fire frequency (loss of serotiny and soil storage), or migration to fire-free habitats (loss of thick bark, pyrogenic flowering, serotiny or soil storage). Protea (Africa) and Hakea (Australia) illustrate the importance of stabilisation processes between resprouting/non-sprouting in accounting for speciation events over the last 20 My and highlight the frequent interchange possible between these two traits.Apart from Pinus, most ancestral trait reconstruction relative to fire has been conducted on predominantly Southern Hemisphere cl...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolutionary history of fire‐stimulated resprouting, flowering, seed release and germination

Lamont

Yan

2018

Biological Reviews

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“…The effect of fire on plant communities invaded by nonnative invasive plants has gone almost unstudied in the South American Gran Chaco, the second largest biome of South America, where fires are frequent and resprouter woody plants dominate the system (Gurvich et al 2005;Verzino et al 2005;Torres et al 2014;Bravo et al 2014). Here, we study the post-fire resprouting response of native and non-native species in Chaco Serrano forest of central Argentina.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Wildfires Promote Woody Species Invasion in a Fire-Adapted Ecosystem? Post-fire Resprouting of Native and Non-native Woody Plants in Central Argentina

Herrero

Torres

Renison

2015

Environmental Management

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We asked whether prescribed fire could be a useful management tool to reduce invasion by non-native plants in an ecosystem where native plants are supposed to be adapted to fires. Specifically, we compare the post-fire resprouting response of native and non-native woody species in Chaco Serrano forest of central Argentina. The measurements were carried out in five burnt areas where we selected ten native and seven non-native species. Our response variables were (1) post-fire survival, (2) types of resprouts, and (3) the growth of the resprouts. Our main results show that one year after the fire, survivals of native and non-native species were 0.84 and 0.89, respectively, with variances in survival seven times smaller in the native species group. Type of resprout was also less variable in native species, while growth of the resprouts was similar in native and non-native groups. We interpret that in most cases, the burning a forest with mixed native and non-native plants through prescribed fires will not differentially stop the invasion by non-native woody species even in ecosystems which are presumed to be relatively resistant to fires such as our study area.

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“…in grazed open woodlands and shrublands; Bravo et al . ) by directly burning Gleditsia triacanthos fruits. For this purpose, we used a device for standard measurement of flammability developed by Jaureguiberry et al .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This amount of fuel allowed us to obtain soil surface temperatures within the range recorded by Bravo et al . () in the field during a surface fire. Fruit samples were placed on the grass matrix and preheated with the burners until grill temperature reached 150°C (~2 min).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Post‐burning germination responses of woody invaders in a fire‐prone ecosystem

et al. 2019

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It has been frequently recognised that there is a positive feedback between plant invasion and fire underlying invasion success in fire-prone ecosystems. Accordingly, the response of woody alien species germination to fire may have direct implications on their invasiveness in those ecosystems, particularly when fruit ripening occurs in the fire season. Here, we experimentally evaluated the germination response of some of the main woody invaders of the Chaco Serrano dry woodlands (Gleditsia triacanthos, Cotoneaster glaucophyllus, Ligustrum lucidum, Pyracantha angustifolia and Melia azedarach), which fruit in the seasons of highest fire frequency. Seeds were subjected to heat-shock treatments that simulated a range of heat intensities, and the species were classified according to their germination response as heat sensitive, tolerant or stimulated. Since Gleditsia triacanthos has indehiscent fruits that fall from the plant and might be exposed to flames, its germination response was also assessed of seeds exposed to fruit burning. Germination responses to heat varied among the invasive species. G. triacanthos seeds experienced increased germination under very low and low heat indexes; it was therefore classified as heat stimulated. The other four species showed no change in germination under very low heat indexes and were therefore considered heat tolerant. However, all species were sensitive to high heat as indicated by their significant decline in germination. G. triacanthos would have limited capacity to recruit from seeds following flaming combustion of its fruits. The prevalence of heat-tolerant rather than heat-stimulated germination responses suggests that the occurrence of frequent and seasonal fires in this subtropical savanna system might delay rather than boost the expansion of these invasive species in the system. Yet, the presence of heat-stimulated germination in one of the studied species warns against generalisation, even within the same ecosystem, and further supports the idiosyncratic nature of invasion success.Abstract in Spanish is available with online material.

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Response of hardwood tree regeneration to surface fires, western Chaco region, Argentina

Cited by 38 publications

References 55 publications

Evolutionary history of fire‐stimulated resprouting, flowering, seed release and germination

Evolutionary history of fire‐stimulated resprouting, flowering, seed release and germination

Do Wildfires Promote Woody Species Invasion in a Fire-Adapted Ecosystem? Post-fire Resprouting of Native and Non-native Woody Plants in Central Argentina

Post‐burning germination responses of woody invaders in a fire‐prone ecosystem

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