Impact of fire history on root architectural and morphological functional parameters in campo sujo communities

• Grant number: 18/03755-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Effective date (Start): June 20, 2018
• Effective date (End): January 19, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Alessandra Tomaselli Fidelis
• Grantee: Soizig Anne Le Stradic
• Supervisor: Catherine Roumet
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Research place: Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle & Evolutive (CEFE), France
• Associated to the scholarship: 16/13232-5 - Digging deeper: contribution of belowground plant traits to the functioning of tropical old-growth grasslands, BP.PD

Abstract

Fire act as an evolutionary filter, selecting different combinations of traits for different fire history. Still few studies dealt with resource acquisition strategies in fire prone environment and the impact of fire on root traits and thus on ecosystem functioning and carbon storage, although this is of main importance to understand changes generated by fire regime modification on ecosystem functioning. This is particularly true in a context where fire suppression was pointed out an opportunity for carbon sequestration for several ecosystems, including open Cerrado. The main objective of this project is to assess in which extent belowground plant traits and biomass allocation in above- and below-ground will vary according to different fire histories in tropical fire-prone ecosystem, campos sujos, and and over time. We will also to test the relationship between root traits and soil organic carbon. The study is conducted in three different Cerrado sites in Southeastern Brazil, in nine areas of campos sujos with different fire histories. During the internship, the postdoctoral researcher will analyze all digital images, using winrhizo software available at the host institution, of scanned root samples collected in July 2017 and January 2018, to calculate root functional parameters for the different communities. The contribution of the belowground compartment to the overall biomass, how root functional parameters vary according to fire history and season and how such changes will affect soil carbon will be assessed. Finally, the postdoctoral researcher intents to submit a manuscript related to this proposal for publication in a peer-review international journal. Moreover, the postdoctoral researcher will seize the opportunity to be part of the leading research group on root functional traits to prepare a second paper about the effect of root Functional Parameter on Soil Organic Carbon. She will take advantage of the experience, facilities and equipment of the host institution to also analyze other root data related to the main postdoctoral project.

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)

BUISSON, ELISE; LE STRADIC, SOIZIG; SILVEIRA, FERNANDO A. O.; DURIGAN, GISELDA; OVERBECK, GERHARD E.; FIDELIS, ALESSANDRA; WILSON FERNANDES, G.; BOND, WILLIAM J.; HERMANN, JULIA-MARIA; MAHY, GREGORY; et al. Resilience and restoration of tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and grassy woodlands. BIOLOGICAL REVIEWS, v. 94, n. 2, p. 590-609, APR 2019. (16/13232-5, 18/03755-6, 17/14236-7, 15/06743-0, 14/12728-1)

LE STRADIC, SOIZIG; ROUMET, CATHERINE; DURIGAN, GISELDA; CANCIAN, LEONARDO; FIDELIS, ALESSANDRA. Variation in biomass allocation and root functional parameters in response to fire history in Brazilian savannas. JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY, v. 109, n. 12, OCT 2021. (16/13232-5, 15/06743-0, 18/03755-6)