Abstract
Some plant secondary compounds, such as terpenes, are very flammable; however, their role in enhancing plant flammability is poorly understood and often neglected in reviews on plant chemical ecology. This is relevant as there is growing evidence that flammability-enhancing traits are adaptive in fire-prone ecosystems. We analyzed the content of monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes, performed flammability tests and genotyped microsatellite markers, all in the same individuals of Rosmarinus officinalis, to evaluate the link between the content of terpenes, flammability and the genetic similarity among individuals. The results suggest that terpenes enhance flammability in R. officinalis, and that variability in flammability among individuals is likely to have a genetic basis. Overall our results suggest that the capacity to produce and store terpenes can be considered a flammability-enhancing trait and could have an adaptive value in fire-prone ecosystems.
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Acknowledgments
This work was funded by the VIRRA and TREVOL projects (CGL2009-12048/BOS, CGL2012-39938-C02-01) from the Spanish government. We thank G. Corcobado for collaborating in the field and laboratory work, S. Donat for the help in the genetic analyses and the IVIA Department of Citriculture for providing standards. B. M. was supported by a grant from the Portuguese government (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia; SFRH/BPD/90277/2012), G. A. A. by a Juan de la Cierva (JDC-2009-5067) post-doc from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN), and J. G. S.-M. by a Ramón y Cajal postdoc also from MICINN.
Author contribution statement
J. G. P. conceived the idea, performed the statistical analysis and wrote the first version of the manuscript. G. A. A. performed the flammability tests and analyzed the terpene contents. B. M. contributed to the design of the experiments and to the flammability tests. J. G. S.-M. performed the genetic analyses. All authors contributed to the final version of the manuscript.
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Communicated by Stephan Hattenschwiler.
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Relationship between flammability (moisture-corrected time-to-ignition) and the content of four common terpenes in Rosmarinus officinalis (camphene, para-cymene, borneol, limonene). (PDF 603 kb)
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Pausas, J.G., Alessio, G.A., Moreira, B. et al. Secondary compounds enhance flammability in a Mediterranean plant. Oecologia 180, 103–110 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-015-3454-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-015-3454-8