Does a trade-off between growth plasticity and resource conservatism mediate post-fire shrubland responses to rainfall seasonality?
© 2021 The Authors New Phytologist © 2021 New Phytologist Foundation.
| Veröffentlicht in: | The New phytologist. - 1984. - 230(2021), 4 vom: 17. Mai, Seite 1407-1420 |
|---|---|
| 1. Verfasser: | |
| Weitere Verfasser: | , , |
| Format: | Online-Aufsatz |
| Sprache: | English |
| Veröffentlicht: |
2021
|
| Zugriff auf das übergeordnete Werk: | The New phytologist |
| Schlagworte: | Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Mediterranean climate change fire phenotypic plasticity rainfall resource conservatism shrubland soil nutrients |
| Zusammenfassung: | © 2021 The Authors New Phytologist © 2021 New Phytologist Foundation. Growth plasticity may allow fire-prone species to maximize their recovery rates during temporary, sporadic periods of rainfall availability in the post-fire environment. However, moisture-driven growth plasticity could be maladaptive in nutrient-limited environments that require tighter control of growth and resource use. We investigated whether a trade-off between plasticity and conservatism mediates growth responses to altered rainfall seasonality in neighbouring shrubland communities that occupy different soils. We monitored post-fire vegetation regrowth in two structurally similar, Mediterranean-type shrublands for 3 years. We investigated the effects of experimentally altered rainfall seasonality on post-fire species' growth rates. We found that moisture-driven growth plasticity was higher among species occupying the fertile soils of the renosterveld site relative to those occupying the nutrient-poor soils of the fynbos site. This resulted in higher overall responsiveness of post-fire recovery patterns in renosterveld to experimental shifts in rainfall seasonality. In post-fire shrubland communities, the trade-off between moisture-dependent growth plasticity and resource conservatism could be mediated by soil nutrient availability. Therefore, edaphic differences between structurally similar shrublands could lead to differences in their sensitivity to post-fire rainfall seasonality |
|---|---|
| Beschreibung: | Date Completed 14.05.2021 Date Revised 14.05.2021 published: Print-Electronic Citation Status MEDLINE |
| ISSN: | 1469-8137 |
| DOI: | 10.1111/nph.17246 |