Plant reproductive success and its responses to the fire: the role of pollen deposition

• Grant number: 23/04378-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: November 15, 2023
• End date: November 14, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Applied Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Vânia Regina Pivello
• Grantee: Gudryan Jackson Barônio
• Supervisor: Juli Garcia Pausas
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universitat de València, Spain
• Associated to the scholarship: 21/09247-5 - How fire management affects the interactions among plants, pollinators, and ants in the rupestrian field?, BP.PD

Abstract

This BEPE proposal is complementary to the post-doctoral in-country project: "How does fire management affect interactions between plants, pollinators, and ants in campo rupestre?" (FAPESP Project 21/09247-5). The research project in the country concerns the influence of fire on the availability of floral resources, interactions between plants and pollinators, and on plant reproduction mediated by these interactions. As part of pollination, pollen deposition influences ecological and evolutionary aspects of plants - such as pollen limitation and genetic diversity - but it is also a resource intrinsically related to floral visitors, who seek pollen as a resource. Variations in environmental conditions, such as those caused by fire, can determine the variation in resource availability. Therefore, pollen deposition can vary in different fire contexts, according to the diversity of plants, their pollinators and the specific responses of these organisms after burning. Considering these effects, the aim of this project is to understand and compare how fire alters the reproductive success of the male component of plants between two communities: campo rupestre (Brazilian Cerrado) and matorral (Spanish Mediterranean), both environments with herbaceous-shrub vegetation on rocky soil. The rupestrian fields share matorral characteristics such as high diversity and fire history, directing both ecosystems to mosaic landscape architecture. Understanding how hetero- or conspecific pollen deposition occurs may clarify how possible adjustments in fire management practices would maintain male reproductive success, ensuring both the availability of resources to visitors and the main mechanism of plant genetic diversity. Considering the possibility of an internship abroad, we will compare data on pollen deposition in populations with fire-stimulated flowering in these two ecosystems. The proposal will be developed at the Centro de Investigaciones sobre Desertificação (CIDE), in Valencia/Spain, which is a public institution that houses the research group led by Dr. Juli Pausas. The research focus of the group is the ecology and evolution of fire-prone ecosystems, with a view specially to fire management and biodiversity conservation of Mediterranean ecosystems. Thus, the study of the effects of fire supported by CIDE and Juli Pausas' research group will allow the candidate to deepen his knowledge on the subject, as well as establish international partnerships. Upon his return to Brazil, the experience gained will facilitate the dissemination of the project's results, as well as guide the application of knowledge in fire-prone area management initiatives. (AU)