Text by Heloiza Zirondi
In many vegetation communities across de globe where fire is present, plants have adaptations to the fire regime to survive and reproduce. In many cases, plants bear thick barks and protected meristems. In addition, they can have fast responses after fire, which includes fast resprouting and stimulation and/or increase of flowering.
During my Master's, I studied how fire affected flowering and fruiting responses of Cerrado plant species. Therefore, we studied plant communities with no fire and compared with recently burned communities. The results showed that more than 60% of all species in the plant community - including shrubs, forbs, and graminoids - had their flowering stimulated by fire. Some of these species flowered faster in burned areas while some species could be seen flowering only after fire (e.g. Lippia horridula).
At the Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology (LEVeg), Dr. Alessandra Fidelis recently wrote a revision paper about post-fire flowering strategies in the Cerrado and the results are astonishing (hope to see it published soon). Finally, understanding how fire affects the key process of plants will contribute to the preservation of biodiversity.
Projects:
> The effect of fire on phenology, seed and germination traits of Cerrado species (FAPESP 2017/16149-4)
> How fire season affects Cerrado vegetation? (FAPESP JP 2015/06743-0)
Collaborator:
Dr. Mark Ooi (University of New South Wales)
Find us on twitter @LEVeg_Unesp