Burning grasses, poor seeds: post-fire reproduction of early-flowering Neotropical savanna grasses produces low-quality
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Burning grasses, poor seeds: post-fire reproduction of earlyflowering Neotropical savanna grasses produces low-quality seeds Hudson G. V. Fontenele Heloisa S. Miranda
. Letı´cia F. S. Cruz-Lima
. Jose´ L. Pacheco-Filho
.
Received: 10 June 2020 / Accepted: 7 September 2020 Ó Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Fire is a key factor triggering ecological processes in old-growth grasslands and savannas and could have strong implications for reproduction via seeds for the herbaceous layer. In the Neotropical savannas, grasses show strong synchronous post-fire flowering, and their reproduction is often considered fire-dependent, with their massive post-fire seed production being suggested as a source of population maintenance. However, literature lacks studies to provide evidence of fire-dependent flowering and no study has assessed the quality of the post-fire seed production. Therefore, we aimed to describe a phenological pattern across early-flowering Neotropical savanna grasses in both recently burnt and unburnt cerrado communities addressing three questions: (1) Do the early-flowering species rely on fire for reproduction via seeds? (2) If no, what are the effects of fire on their reproductive phenology? (3) Does the
Communicated by Kevin P. Kirkman.
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-020-01080-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. H. G. V. Fontenele (&) L. F. S. Cruz-Lima J. L. Pacheco-Filho H. S. Miranda Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade de Brası´lia, Campus Universita´rio Darcy Ribeiro, Brası´lia, DF, Brasil e-mail: [email protected]
massive seed production in post-fire cerrado communities lead to high-quality seeds? We recorded the reproductive phenology of nine early-flowering grasses for 17 weeks in unburnt and recently burnt cerrado communities. We collected the seeds, estimated the production of fertile seeds, and tested germination. No species showed a pattern of firedependent reproduction. Fire stimulated earlier flowering while reproduction in the unburnt community was related to continuous rainfall. Seed production following fire was of low quality, and no species produced [ 7% fertile seeds. Seed germination remained below 50% for most species. Post-fire seed production of early-flowering species led to poor seed quality, suggesting a constraint to the recruitment of new individuals of early-flowering Neotropical savanna grasses in recently burnt cerrados. Keywords Post-fire flowering Seed production Seed quality Germination Fire-dependent flowering Neotropical savannas
Introduction Tropical old-growth grasslands and savannas are among the most biodiversity-rich ecosystems in the world (Parr et al. 2014; Veldman et al. 2015). They are characterized by an abundant herbaceous layer with a
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rich and unique species composition, mostly perennials (Veldman et al. 2015). In these ancient ecosystems, fire is a key
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