The effect of fire on seed germination of campo rupestre species in the South American Cerrado
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The effect of fire on seed germination of campo rupestre species in the South American Cerrado Alessandra Furtado Fernandes . Yumi Oki Bruno Moreira
. Geraldo Wilson Fernandes
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Received: 8 October 2019 / Accepted: 22 September 2020 Ó Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Fire is an important disturbance in terrestrial ecosystems and plays a key role in the germination process and seedling establishment of many species. In grassland ecosystems, seeds normally tolerate heat-shocks associated with low intensity fires but are negatively affected by higher heat doses. Additionally, smoke-stimulated germination is not commonly recognized as important in neotropical grasslands. This may result from a negative relationship between the ability to resprout after fire and firestimulated germination ability, as many species in these grasslands regenerate well after fire by
Communicated by William E. Rogers.
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-020-01086-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. A. F. Fernandes B. Moreira (&) Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Calc¸ada Martim de Freitas, 3000-456 Coimbra, Portugal e-mail: [email protected] Y. Oki G. W. Fernandes Evolutionary Ecology and Biodiversity/DGEE, ICB/ Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte 31270-901, Brazil
resprouting. To ascertain the role of heat and smoke in the post-fire germination response of campo rupestre vegetation, we exposed seeds of nine species (that regenerate after fire by resprouting) to various treatments related to fire (heat, smoke, and heat plus smoke) and analysed their germination behaviour. Our results suggest that these species have high seed germination in the absence of specific dormancy breaking conditions and/or that stimulated germination triggered by fire-related cues is not common. Additionally, while seeds from some species can withstand temperatures of 80 °C for 5 min without affecting germination, most species are negatively affected by higher heat doses. However, our results suggest an important role of smoke enhancing germination rate (speed) of campo rupestre species. In view of the characteristics of campo rupestre environmental conditions and vegetation, we provide a novel outlook of enhanced germination rate by smoke as an important mechanism for seed regeneration after fire of campo rupestre’s species that resprout, particularly for seeds resulting from post-fire seed dispersion. Keywords Rupestrian grassland Smoke Heat Fire ecology Germination rate (t50) Post-fire seedling recruitment
B. Moreira CIDE-CSIC, Campus IVIA, Ctra. Na´quera Km. 4.5, 46113 Montcada, Valencia, Spain
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Plant Ecol
Introduction Fire is an essential factor in the formation and maintenance of several biomes worldwide (Bond and Keeley 2005). Fire is particularly important for the maintenance of open vegetation formations in So
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