Postfire responses of the woody flora of Central Chile: Insights from a germination experiment.

ABSTRACT: Fire is a selective agent shaping plant traits and community assembly in fire-prone ecosystems. However, in ecosystems with no fire history, it can be a cause of land degradation when it is suddenly introduced by humans, as plant species may not be able to respond to such novel disturbance. Unlike other Mediterranean-type ecosystems (MTE) of the world, natural fires have not been frequent during the Quaternary in the matorral of Central Chile, and thus, plant adaptive responses are expected to be uncommon. We evaluated the effect of heat shock on seed survival and germination of 21 native woody plants of the Chilean matorral and compiled information on smoke-stimulation and resprouting, to evaluate the importance of fire-adaptive responses in the context of the other MTE. We found that in

SUBMITTER: Gomez-Gonzalez S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5507535 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature