Are Cerrado savanna communities fire resilient?

• Grant number: 19/09659-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: January 01, 2021
• End date: March 05, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Applied Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Alessandra Tomaselli Fidelis
• Grantee: Mariana Correa Dairel
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 22/03447-5 - How does fire affect community assembly of tropical old-growth grasslands?, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

Fire is natural and recurrent in grasslands and savannas physiognomies of Cerrado. The plant community, in turn, is resilient and presents different attributes that allow its permanence and regeneration in front of disturbance events, being thus a vegetation adapted to fire regime. However, most conservation units adopt policies of fire exclusion, directly committing the conservation of these physiognomies and the provision of ecosystem services. Change in the fire regime will consequently imply changes in the structure, physiognomy and diversity of the ecosystem. In this perspective, the following project aims to understand the effect of fire exclusion on vegetation dynamics in areas with distinct fire histories, areas that have not been recorded for a long time and areas that have been excluded from fire for a long time and have recently been burned. The work will be carried out in different areas of Cerrado savannas in different regions of the country, under different abiotic and biotic conditions, in order to develop theoretical and practical foundations for conservation, restoration and management of open phytophysiognomies in the Cerrado. (AU)