After fire, it flowers: evolution of fire season on flowering phenology of the ground layer of the Cerrado

• Grant number: 25/24950-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: December 01, 2025
• End date: February 28, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Applied Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Alessandra Tomaselli Fidelis
• Grantee: Felipe Alvarez Silva Nunes
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 23/16620-0 - Fire as a tool for management and restoration in the Cerrado in the Anthropocene, AP.BTA.TEM

Abstract

Fire-prone ecosystems are found in various regions of the world. In these ecosystems, fire can alter the structure and dynamics of plant communities. Right after burning, a series of biotic and abiotic changes occur within the communities; as a result, post-fire environmental conditions can affect how plants regenerate, thereby influencing the assembly of communities in flammable environments. In the Cerrado, fire generally occurs during the dry season, between May and September. When fire occurs during this period, the biomass is consumed, and individual plants survive through their underground organs, which are not affected by the fire because they are protected by the soil. In tropical savannas and grasslands, fire is widely recognized as a trigger for the reproductive phase of several species, which often flower quickly and synchronously after the passage of fire. This floral synchrony can generate peaks in resource availability for pollinators, directly affecting plant-pollinator interaction networks and associated ecosystem services. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to evaluate whether and how fire, occurring at different times of the year (beginning, middle, and end of the dry season), interferes with the reproductive phenology of herbaceous layer in the Cerrado. Surveys of plant communities were conducted in plots subjected to burning at the beginning, middle, and end of the dry season, applied biennially since 2013. Reproductive phenology was recorded in 1 x 1 m subplots distributed within 30 x 30 m plots for each burning period. Understanding the effects of fire timing on reproductive phenology is essential to comprehend how fire acts as an environmental filter and shapes biodiversity in flammable ecosystems. Moreover, such information is fundamental for developing more effective management and conservation strategies that consider not only species regeneration but also the maintenance of ecological interactions and ecosystem services associated with plant reproduction (AU)