Stimulated photosynthesis of regrowth after fire in coastal scrub vegetation: increased water or nutrient availability?

ABSTRACT: Fire-prone landscapes experience frequent fires, disrupting above-ground biomass and altering below-ground soil nutrient availability. Augmentation of leaf nutrients or leaf water balance can both reduce limitations to photosynthesis and facilitate post-fire recovery in plants. These modes of fire responses are often studied separately and hence are rarely compared. We hypothesized that under severe burning, woody plants of a coastal scrub ecosystem would have higher rates of photosynthesis (Anet) than in unburned areas due to a transient release from leaf nutrient and water limitations, facilitating biomass recovery post-burn. To compare these fire recovery mechanisms in regrowing plants, we measured leaf gas exchange, leaf and soil N and P concentrations, and plant stomatal limitations i

SUBMITTER: Rogers EIE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11299026 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature