Fire drives functional thresholds on the savanna-forest transition

Ecology

Volumn 94, Issue 11, 2013, Pages 2454-2463

  De L Dantas, Vinícius ^a   Batalha, Marco A ^a   Pausas, Juli G ^b  

^a FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF SÃO CARLOS   (Brazil)

^b CDIS UV Generalitat Valenciana)   (Spain)

Author keywords

Alternative stable states; Cerrado; Community dynamics; Ecological thresholds; Emas National Park, Brazil; Fire regimes; Phylogenetic diversity; Physiognomic gradient; Plant functional traits; Plant fire feedback; Savanna forest systems; Tropical biomes

Indexed keywords

BIOME; COMMUNITY DYNAMICS; DOMINANCE; ECOLOGICAL MODELING; FIRE BEHAVIOR; LANDSCAPE; PHYLOGENETICS; POPULATION DENSITY; POPULATION DISTRIBUTION; SAVANNA; SPECIES DIVERSITY; THRESHOLD; UNDERSTORY;

BRAZIL; EMAS NATIONAL PARK; GOIAS;

EID: 84883300089     PISSN: 00129658     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1890/12-1629.1     Document Type: Article

References (53)

1. Archibald, S., and W. J. Bond. 2003. Growing tall vs growing wide: tree architecture and allometry of Acacia karoo in forest, savanna, and arid environments. Oikos 102: 3-14.
2. Archibald, S., D. P. Roy, B. W. VanWilgen, and R. J. Scholes. 2009. What limits fire? An examination of drivers of burnt area in Southern Africa. Global Change Biology 15: 613-630.
3. Batalha, M. A., W. Mantovani, and H. N. de Mesquita, Júnior. 2001. Vegetation structure in Cerrado physiognomies in South-Eastern Brazil. Brazilian Journal of Biology 61: 475-483.
4. Bond, W. J. 2008. What limits trees in C4 grasslands and savannas? Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 39: 641-659.
5. Bond, W. J. 2010. Do nutrient poor soils inhibit development of forest? A nutrient stock analysis. Plant and Soil 334: 47-60.
6. Bond, W. J., and J. E. Keeley. 2005. Fire as a global 'herbivore': the ecology and evolution of flammable ecosystems. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 20: 387-395.
7. Bond, W. J., F. I. Woodward, and J. F. Midgley. 2005. The global distribution of ecosystems in a world without fire. New Phytologist 165: 525-538.
8. Brando, P. M., D. C. Nepstad, J. K. Balch, B. Bolker, M. C. Christman, M. Coe, and F. E. Putz. 2012. Fire-induced tree mortality in a Neotropical forest: the roles of bark thickness, tree size, woody density and fire behavior. Global Change Biology 18: 630-641.
9. Catry, F. X., F. Moreira, J. G. Pausas, P. M. Fernandes, F. Rego, E. Cardillo, and T. Curt. 2012. Cork oak vulnerability to fire: the role of bark harvesting, tree characteristics and abiotic factors. PLoS One 7:e39 810.
10. Craine, J. M. 2009. Resource strategies of wild plants. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
11. Curran, T. J., L. N. Gersbach, W. Edwards, and A. K. Krockenberger. 2008. Wood density predicts plant damage and vegetative recovery rates caused by cyclone disturbance in tropical rainforest tree species of North Queensland, Australia. Austral Ecology 33: 442-450.
12. Dantas, V. L., J. G. Pausas, M. A. Batalha, P. P. Loiola, and M. V. Cianciaruso. 2013. The role of fire in structuring trait variability in Neotropical savannas. Oecologia 171: 487-494.
13. Delitti, W. B. C., M. Meguro, and J. G. Pausas. 2006. Biomass and mineralmass estimates in a ''Cerrado'' ecosystem. Revista Brasileira de Botânica 29: 531-540.
14. Enquist, B. J., G. B. West, E. L. Charnov, and J. H. Brown. 1999. Allometric scaling of production and life-history variation in vascular plants. Nature 401: 907-911.
15. Gambiza, J., W. Bond, P. G. H. Frost, and S. Higgins. 2000. A simulation model of miombo woodland dynamics under different management regimes. Ecological Economics 33: 353-368.
16. Glitzenstein, J. S., W. J. Platt, and D. R. Streng. 1995. Effects of fire regime and habitat on tree dynamics in north Florida longleaf pine savannas. Ecological Monographs 65: 441-476.
17. Goodland, R., and R. Pollard. 1973. The Brazilian Cerrado vegetation: a fertility gradient. Journal of Ecology 61: 219-224.
18. Graham, C. H., and P. V. A. Fine. 2008. Phylogenetic beta diversity: linking ecological and evolutionary processes across space in time. Ecology Letters 11: 1265-1277.
19. Hansen, B. E. 1997. Approximate asymptotic P values for structural change tests. Journal of Business and Economic Statistics 15: 60-67.
20. Haridasan, M. 1992. Observations on soils, foliar nutrients concentrations and floristic composition of Cerrado sensu stricto and cerrad̃ao communities in central Brazil. Pages 171-184 in J. Proctor, J.A. Ratter, and. P. A. Furley, editors. Nature and dynamics of forest-savanna boundaries. Chapman and Hall, London, UK.
21. Hennenberg, K. J., F. Fischer, K. Kouadio, D. Goetze, B. Orthmann, K. E. Linsenmair, F. Jeltsch, and S. Porembski. 2006. Phytomass and fire occurrence along forest-savanna transects in the Comoé National Park, Ivory Coast. Journal of Tropical Ecology 22: 303-311.
22. Higgins, S. I., et al. 2007. Effects of four decades of fire manipulation on woody vegetation structure in savanna. Ecology 88: 1119-1125.
23. Hirota, M., M. Holmgren, E. H. Van Nes, and M. Scheffer. 2011. Global resilience of tropical forest and savanna to critical transitions. Science 334: 232-235.
24. Hoffmann, W. A., R. A. Dasme, M. Haridasan, M. T. Carvalho, E. L. Geiger, M. A. B. Pereira, S. G. Gotsch, and A. C. Franco. 2009. Tree topkill, not mortality, governs the dynamics of savanna-forest boundaries under frequent fire in central Brazil. Ecology 90: 1326-1337.
25. Hoffmann, W. A., and A. C. Franco. 2003. Comparative growth analysis of tropical forest and savanna woody plants using phylogenetically independent contrasts. Journal of Ecology 91: 475-484.
26. Hoffmann, W. A., E. L. Geiger, S. G. Gotsch, D. R. Rossatto, L. C. R. Silva, O. L. Lau, M. Haridasan, and A. C. Franco. 2012a. Ecological thresholds at the savanna-forest boundary: how plant traits, resources and fire govern the distribution of tropical biomes. Ecology Letters 5: 759-768.
27. Hoffmann, W. A., S. Y. Jaconis, K. L. Mckinley, E. L. Geiger, S. G. Gotsch, and A. C. Franco. 2012b. Fuel or microclimate? Understanding the drivers of fire feedbacks at savanna-forest boundaries. Austral Ecology 37: 634-643.
28. Hoffmann, W. A., E. R. Silva, Jr., G. C. Machado, S. J. Bucci, F. G. Scholz, G. Goldstein, and F. C. Meinzen. 2005. Seasonal leaf dynamics across a tree density gradient in a Brazilian savanna. Oecologia 145: 307-316.
29. Jung, V., C. Violle, C. Mondy, L. Hoffmann, and S. Muller. 2010. Intraspecific variability and trait-based community assembly. Journal of Ecology 98: 1134-1140.
30. Keeley, J. E., W. J. Bond, R. A. Bradstock, J. G. Pausas, and P. W. Rundel. 2012. Fire in Mediterranean ecosystems: ecology, evolution and management. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
31. Köppen, W. 1931. Grundriss der Klimakunde. Gruyter, Berlin, Germany.
32. Lawes, M. J., J. J. Midgley, and P. J. Clarke. 2012. Costs and benefits of relative bark thickness in relation to fire damage: a savanna/forest contrast. Journal of Ecology.
33. Lehmann, C. E. R., S. A. Archibald, W. A. Hoffmann, and W. J. Bond. 2011. Deciphering the distribution of the savanna biome. New Phytologist 191: 197-209.
34. Markesteijn, L., L. Poorter, F. Bongers, H. Paz, and L. Sack. 2011. Hydraulics and life history of tropical dry forest tree species: coordination of species' drought and shade tolerance. New Phytologist 191: 480-495.
35. Murphy, B. T., and D. M. J. S. Bowman. 2012. What controls the distribution of tropical forest and savanna? Ecology Letters 15: 748-758.
36. Oliveira-Filho, A. T., and J. A. Ratter. 2002. Vegetation physiognomies and woody flora of the Cerrado biome. Pages 91-120 in P. S. Oliveira and R. J. Marquis, editors. The Cerrados of Brazil. Columbia University Press, New York, New York, USA.
37. Pausas, J. G. 1997. Resprouting of Quercus suber in NE Spain after fire. Journal of Vegetation Science 8: 703-706.
38. Peterson, D. W., and P. B. Reich. 2001. Prescribed fire in oak savanna: fire frequency effects on stand structure and dynamics. Ecological Applications 11: 914-927.
39. Pivello, V. R., and L. M. Coutinho. 1992. Transfer of macronutrients to the atmosphere during experimental burnings in an open Cerrado (Brazilian savanna). Journal of Tropical Ecology 8: 487-497.
40. Pueyo, S., P. M. L. A. Graca, R. I. Barbosa, R. Cots, E. Cardona, and P. M. Fearnside. 2010. Testing for criticality in ecosystem dynamics: the case of Amazonian rainforest and savanna fire. Ecology Letters 13: 793-802.
41. R Development Core Team. 2011. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. http://www.r-project.org
42. Ramos-Neto, M. B., and V. R. Pivello. 2000. Lightning fires in a Brazilian savanna national park: rethinking management strategies. Environmental Management 26: 675-684.
43. Ratnam, J., W. J. Bond, R. J. Fensham, W. A. Hoffmann, S. Archibald, C. E. R. Lehmann, M. T. Anderson, S. I. Higgins, and M. Sankaran. 2011. When is a 'forest' a savanna, and why does it matter? Global Ecology and Biogeography 20: 653-660.
44. Rossatto, D. R., W. A. Hoffmann, and A. C. Franco. 2009. Differences in growth patterns between co-occurring forest and savanna trees affect the forest-savanna boundary. Functional Ecology 23: 689-698.
45. Salis, S. M., M. A. Assis, P. P. Mattos, and A. C. S. Pĩao. 2006. Estimating the aboveground biomass and wood volume of savanna woodlands in Brazil's Pantanal wetlands based on allometric correlations. Forest Ecology and Management 228: 61-68.
46. Simon, M. F., R. Gretherc, L. P. Queiroz, C. Skemae, R. T. Penningtone, and C. E. Hughes. 2009. Recent assembly of the Cerrado, a Neotropical plant diversity hotspot, by in situ evolution of adaptations to fire. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 48: 20 359-20 364.
47. Staver, A. C., S. Archbald, and A. S. Levin. 2011. The global extent and determinants of savanna and forest as alternative biome states. Science 334: 230-232.
48. Staver, A. C., and A. S. Levin. 2012. Integrating theoretical climate and fire effects on savanna and forest systems. American Naturalist 180: 211-224.
49. Toms, J. D., and M. S. Lesperance. 2003. Piecewise regression: a tool for identifying ecological thresholds. Ecology 84: 2034-2041.
50. Trauernicht, C., B. P. Murphy, T. E. Portner, and D. M. J. S. Bowman. 2012. Tree cover-fire interactions promote the persistence of a fire-sensitive conifer in a highly flammable savanna. Journal of Ecology 100: 958-968.
51. Verdú, M., and J. G. Pausas. 2007. Fire drives phylogenetic clustering in Mediterranean Basin woody plant communities. Journal of Ecology 95: 1316-1323.
52. Westoby, M., D. S. Falster, A. T. Moles, P. A. Vesk, and I. J. Wright. 2002. Plant ecological strategies: some leading dimensions of variation between species. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 33: 125-159.
53. Woodward, F. I., M. R. Lomas, and C. K. Kelly. 2004. Global climate and the distribution of plant biomes. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 359: 1465-1476.