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Journal article
Plant life-history data as evidence of an historical mixed-severity fire regime in Banksia Woodlands
Australian journal of botany, Vol.72(5), BT23098
2024
Abstract
Context
The concept of the fire regime is central to understanding and managing fire-prone ecosystems globally, and information on past regimes can provide useful insights into species disturbance adaptations. Although observations from satellite imagery or palaeoecological proxy data can provide direct evidence of past, pre-colonial fire regimes, they may be limited in temporal or spatial resolution and are not available for all ecosystems. However, fire-related plant-trait and demographic data offer an alternative approach to understand species–fire regime associations at the ecosystem scale.
Aims
We aimed to quantify the life-history strategies and associated fire regimes for six co-occurring shrub and tree species from fire-prone, Mediterranean-climate Banksia Woodlands in south-western Australia.
Methods
We collected static demographic data on size structure, seedling recruitment, and plant mortality across sites of varying time since last fire. We combined demographic data with key fire-related species traits to define plant life-history strategies. We then compared observed life histories with a priori expectations for surface, stand-replacing, and mixed-severity fire-regime types to infer historical fire-regime associations.
Key results
Fire-killed shrubs and weakly serotinous trees had abundant post-fire seedling recruitment, but also developed multi-cohort populations during fire-free periods via inter-fire seedling recruitment. Resprouting shrubs had little seedling recruitment at any time, even following fire, and showed no signs of decline in the long absence of fire, likely owing to their very long lifespans.
Conclusions
The variation in life-history strategies for these six co-occurring species is consistent with known ecological strategies to cope with high variation in fire intervals in a mixed-severity fire regime. Whereas resprouting and strong post-fire seedling recruitment indicate a tolerance of shorter fire intervals, inter-fire recruitment and weak serotiny are interpreted as a bet-hedging strategy to cope with occasional long fire-free periods that may otherwise exceed adult and seed-bank lifespans.
Implications
Our findings suggested that Banksia Woodlands have evolved with highly variable fire intervals in a mixed-severity fire regime. Further investigations of species adaptations to varying fire size and patchiness can help extend our understanding of fire-regime tolerances.
Details
- Title
- Plant life-history data as evidence of an historical mixed-severity fire regime in Banksia Woodlands
- Authors/Creators
- Russell G. MillerNeal J. Enright - Murdoch University, Centre for Terrestrial Ecosystem Science and SustainabilityJoseph B. Fontaine - Murdoch University, Centre for Terrestrial Ecosystem Science and SustainabilityDavid J. Merritt - The University of QueenslandBen P. Miller - Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions
- Publication Details
- Australian journal of botany, Vol.72(5), BT23098
- Publisher
- CSIRO Publishing
- Identifiers
- 991005687465907891
- Copyright
- © 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)).
- Murdoch Affiliation
- School of Environmental and Conservation Sciences; Centre for Terrestrial Ecosystem Science and Sustainability
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article
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- Citation topics
- 3 Agriculture, Environment & Ecology
- 3.40 Forestry
- 3.40.86 Plant Communities
- Web Of Science research areas
- Plant Sciences
- ESI research areas
- Plant & Animal Science