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The dynamics of the soil seed bank after a fire event in a woody savanna in central Brazil

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Abstract

The seed-bank dynamics of cerrado, a savanna-like vegetation type in central Brazil, was monitored for a year after a fire event in the mid-dry season. Fifty paired soil and litter samples were collected 1 day before and 1 day after the fire to record the immediate effects on the seed bank, and thereafter at monthly intervals to investigate the post-fire seed bank dynamics. The samples were hand-sorted and the intact seeds were classified as monocot or dicot and counted. All seeds underwent germination trials in a germination chamber for 1 month. Seeds that did not germinate were checked for the presence and viability of the embryo. The sorted soil samples were placed in a greenhouse for 6 months, and the count of emerging seedlings was added to the number of germinated and dormant seeds from the germination trials to estimate the total number of viable seeds per sample. The fire did not affect the total seed-bank density: 63 ± 8 seeds m−2 before the fire, and 83 ± 20 seeds m−2 (mean ± se) immediately after it. Although monocots represented 65 % of the pre-fire seed bank, 1 year after the fire, the monocot seed density did not reach the pre-fire value, whereas the density of dicot seeds increased threefold. After the fire, the viable seed density and species richness, decreased with the onset of the rainy season coinciding with germination in the field. Therefore, post-fire recruitment increases genetic variability and contributes to the persistence of plant populations in cerrado communities.

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Acknowledgments

We thank CAPES for the grant awarded to Luciana A. Z. de Andrade; the staff of the Reserva Ecológica do IBGE, the Department of Ecology and the Thermobiology Laboratory of the University of Brasilia for providing field and laboratory facilities; and Walter Nascimento Neto and Mariliza Tives Padilha for their help during seed hand sorting.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Agência Nacional de Águas, Brasília, DF, 70610-200, Brazil

    Luciana Aparecida Zago de Andrade

  2. Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade de Brasília, Brasilia, DF, 70910-900, Brazil

    Heloisa Sinatora Miranda

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  1. Luciana Aparecida Zago de Andrade
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  2. Heloisa Sinatora Miranda
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Correspondence to Luciana Aparecida Zago de Andrade.

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Communicated by M. Lawes.

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de Andrade, L.A.Z., Miranda, H.S. The dynamics of the soil seed bank after a fire event in a woody savanna in central Brazil. Plant Ecol 215, 1199–1209 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-014-0378-z

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