Post-fire resprout in an endangered and narrow endemic shrub from rupestrian grasslands, Serra do Cipó, southeastern Brazil

Abstract

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0), which permits reproduction, adaptation, and distribution provided the original author and source are credited. ResumoEmbora existam evidências de que a vegetação dos campos rupestres seja resiliente à passagem do fogo, são incipientes as investigações sobre os efeitos da crescente frequência de incêndios de origem antrópica em plantas raras e endêmicas desse ecossistema. Neste estudo, monitoramos o rebrotamento pós-fogo da espécie Coccoloba cereifera Schwacke (Polygonaceae), um arbusto ameaçado e endêmico dos campos rupestres do sudeste do Brasil. Cinco meses após o incêndio, rebrotaram 100% dos indivíduos monitorados. Entretanto, um ano após o incêndio, as plantas queimadas ainda apresentaram comprimento da rameta 24% inferior e número de folhas 53,5% inferior em relação ao porte das plantas não queimadas. As plantas queimadas apresentaram taxa de crescimento relativo em número de folhas muito superior e investimento reprodutivo muito inferior em comparação com as plantas não queimadas. Embora a espécie estudada demonstre alta capacidade de rebrotamento pós-fogo, o padrão de crescimento vegetativo e investimento reprodutivo apresentado pelas plantas rebrotadas indica que a crescente frequência de incêndios antrópicos represente uma séria ameaça para C. cereifera. Palavras-chave:Cadeia do Espinhaço, conservação, Coccoloba cereifera, crescimento de plantas, fenologia reprodutiva. AbstractAlthough there is evidence that the vegetation from rupestrian grasslands is resilient to fire, investigations about the effects of increasing frequency of anthropogenic fires in the rare and endemic plants from this ecosystem are still incipient. In this study, we monitored the post-fire resprouting of the endemic and endangered shrub species Coccoloba cereifera Schwacke (Polygonaceae) from rupestrian grasslands, southeastern Brazil. Five months after the fire 100% of the monitored individuals resprouted. However, one year after the fire, the burned plants had the ramet length 24% lower and number of leaves 53.5% smaller in relation to unburned plants. Burned plants showed a much higher relative growth rate in number of leaves and much lower reproductive investment compared to unburned plants. Although the studied species showed a high ability to resprout after fire, the pattern of vegetative growth and reproductive investment showed by the burned plants suggested that the increasing frequency of anthropogenic fires represents a serious threat to C. cereifera.

Fire seasonality plays a limited role in the reproduction ofAnacardium humileA. St.‐Hil. in a tropical savanna

“…While burning affects the tradeoffs related to plant energy investment in survival, growth, flowering, and fruiting over time (Furst et al 2017), this effect was rather limited in the focal A. humile populations. Indeed, reproductive output was concentrated in the dry season, as expected for this species (Agostini-Costa et al 2016), and there were no such manifestations during the rainy season.…”

“…Resprouting is essential for the survival and maintenance of Cerrado plant species and is critical for shrubs that, due to their small size, are completely consumed by flames and can only survive through basal resprouting from belowground buds (Fidelis & Zirondi 2021;Zupo et al 2021). After vegetative recovery from fire through resprouts, the plants often develop different flowering patterns in ecosystems prone to wildfires (Fidelis & Zirondi 2021), and such strategies are associated with tradeoffs in energy investment in survival and reproduction over time (Furst et al 2017). Indeed, among the adaptations for coping with fire are specialized phenological and reproductive strategies, including earlier maturity and fireinduced flowering (Simon & Pennington 2012;Fidelis & Zirondi 2021).…”

“…After vegetative recovery from fire through resprouts, the plants often develop different flowering patterns in ecosystems prone to wildfires (Fidelis & Zirondi 2021), and such strategies are associated with tradeoffs in energy investment in survival and reproduction over time (Furst et al . 2017). Indeed, among the adaptations for coping with fire are specialized phenological and reproductive strategies, including earlier maturity and fire‐induced flowering (Simon & Pennington 2012; Fidelis & Zirondi 2021).…”

Ficha de Atractus spinalis

“…Apesar de ocorrer em uma unidade de conservação de proteção integral -o Parque Nacional da Serra do Cipó -, a a atividade turística é intensa e a região é afetada por incêndios recorrentes, como os ocorridos em 2014, que queimou aproximadamente 25% da área do Parque (Furst et al, 2017), e o de 2019, que atingiu mais de 20% do Parque (https://g1.globo.com/mg/minas-gerais/noticia/2019/10/12/incendio-no-parquenacional-da-serra-do-cipo-e-controlado.ghtml). Não se sabe, porém, o quanto esses impactos afetam a espécie.…”

Oportunidades de Mercado para Apoiar o Manejo Sustentável do Fogo em Paisagens com Remanescentes de Cerrado (savana) Pirofíticos

“…Areas with remnant native Cerrado vegetation are the most hit by frequent, large LDS wildfires; a setting which currently affects especially protected areas, Indigenous and other traditional (Quilombola, Geraizeiro, Vazanteiro, Quebradeira de coco Babaçu, etc), and local (small family farmers) communities (Figure 3c). The ecological impacts of such fire regimes have increasingly been documented (Durigan, 2020;Gomes et al, 2018;Miranda, 2010) for fire adapted vegetation such as endemic rupestrian grasslands (Figueira et al, 2016;Furst et al, 2017), and especially for fire-sensitive vegetation including seasonal semideciduous forests (Pereira et al, 2017), riparian forests (Hoffmann et al, 2012;Silva et al, 2013), and scleromorphic forests -known as cerradão (Reis et al, 2017).…”