After fire, where to the resprouts come from? Evaluation of the bud bank and belowground organs of Cerrado

• Grant number: 17/02934-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: February 01, 2018
• End date: December 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Botany - Applied Botany
• Principal Investigator: Alessandra Tomaselli Fidelis
• Grantee: Aline Bertolosi Bombo
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 15/06743-0 - How does fire season affect Cerrado vegetation?, AP.JP
• Associated scholarship(s): 18/17612-2 - Fire frequency effects in bud bank size and belowground organs in a South African savanna, BE.EP.PD

Abstract

Fire is one of the main factors that ensure the maintenance of open physiognomies at flammable ecosystems, controlling dominant species and acting in competition hierarchy in plant communities. Cerrado vegetation has been influenced by fire presence for at least four million years, and its flora, mainly the herbaceous-subshrub layer, is typically pyrophytic and well adapted to the frequent loss of aerial biomass; furthermore, these plants have attributes that increase their chances of survival after fire events, such as the allocation of biomass in belowground organs along with reserve accumulation, and resprout ability through aerial or underground buds. Identification of belowground organs at flammable ecosystems is important to understand the regeneration patterns of post-fire vegetations, once different morphological organs can have distinct strategies. Owing to the importance of Cerrado in Brazil, occupying around 22% of the national territory, and its fast degradation due to anthropogenic pressures, the understanding of adaptive strategies related to the survival and maintenance of the populations in this ecosystem is of utmost importance, since such studies may support management and conservation plans in protecting areas. Therefore, this project aims to assess the bud bank and the belowground organs diversity in plant communities from Cerrado areas, under different fire regimes, with the purpose of raising functional attributes and relating them to vegetation responses after fire events.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

BOMBO, A. B.; SIEBERT, F.; FIDELIS, A.. Fire and herbivory shape belowground bud banks in a semi-arid African savanna. AFRICAN JOURNAL OF RANGE & FORAGE SCIENCE, OCT 2021. (17/02934-1, 15/06743-0, 18/17612-2)

CHIMINAZZO, MARCO ANTONIO; BOMBO, ALINE BERTOLOSI; CHARLES-DOMINIQUE, TRISTAN; FIDELIS, ALESSANDRA. Your best buds are worth protecting: Variation in bud protection in a fire-prone cerrado system. FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY, v. 35, n. 11, OCT 2021. (18/21300-6, 15/06743-0, 17/02934-1)

CHIMINAZZO, MARCO ANTONIO; BOMBO, ALINE BERTOLOSI; CHARLES-DOMINIQUE, TRISTAN; FIDELIS, ALESSANDRA. To protect or to hide: Why not both? An investigation of fire-related strategies in Cerrado woody species. FLORA, v. 306, p. 8-pg., 2023-09-01. (17/02934-1, 18/21300-6, 15/06743-0, 21/09269-9)