Resprouting grasses are associated with less frequent fire than seeders
Cite this dataset
Simpson, Kimberley et al. (2020). Resprouting grasses are associated with less frequent fire than seeders [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.3bk3j9khn
Abstract
- Plant populations persist under recurrent fire via resprouting from surviving tissues (resprouters) or seedling recruitment (seeders). Woody species are inherently slow-maturing, meaning that seeders are confined to infrequent fire regimes. However, for grasses, which mature faster, the relationships between persistence strategy and fire regime remains unknown.
- Globally, we analysed associations between fire regimes experienced by hundreds of grass species and their persistence strategy, within a phylogenetic context. We also tested whether persistence strategies are associated with morphological and physiological traits.
- Resprouters were associated with less frequent fire than seeders. Whilst modal fire frequencies were similar (fire return interval of 4-6 years), seeders were restricted to regions with more frequent fire than resprouters, suggesting that greater competition with long-lived resprouters restricts seeder recruitment and survival when fire is rare. Resprouting was associated with lower leaf N, higher C/N ratios and the presence of below-ground buds, but was unrelated to photosynthetic pathway.
- Differences between the life histories of grasses and woody species lead to a contrasting prevalence of seeders and resprouters in relation to fire frequency. Rapid sexual maturation in grasses means that seeder distributions, relative to fire regime, are determined by competitive ability and recruitment, rather than time to reproductive maturity.
Usage notes
Description of files
plant_traits.csv: species level values for plant traits. Columns:
| Column name | Description of data |
| species | Species latin binomial |
| resprouter | Resprouting ability after fire (from literature review - see resprouting_ability file to see information sources used in this classification). |
| photosynthetic.pathway | Photosynthetic pathway used |
| life.history | Life history |
| bud.position | Where a species resprouts from. C=crown resprouter (caespitose species without rhizomes or stolons), R=rhizomatous species; S=stoloniferous species |
| dim.1 | Dimension 1 values from a principal components analysis of leaf traits (specific leaf area, leaf N content, leaf C:N from Jardine et al 2020) |
| dim.2 | Dimension 2 values from a principal components analysis of leaf traits (specific leaf area, leaf N content, leaf C:N from Jardine et al 2020) |
resprouting_ability.xlsx: Species-level data on the ability to resprout after fire, including the sources where data was collected from. Columns:
| Column name | Description of data |
| Species name | Latin binomial |
| Family | 'Poaceae' for all |
| Resprouter | Resprouting ability after fire: yes/no |
| Location | Geographic area where study is based |
| Synonyms | |
| Citation code | Shorthand of informations source (these correspond to the full citations given in the 2nd tab) |
Poaceae.phylogeny.MCC.concise.tre: Phylogeny
fire_drought_data.csv: species level values for fire frequency, fire intensity and drought. Columns:
| Column name | Description of data |
| species | Latin binomial |
| median_FRI_years | species median fire return interval (in years) |
| prop_burnt | proportion of records per species that occur in pixels that burnt at least once in during the MODIS dataset |
| q95_FRP_MW | 95th percentile of fire radiative power (in MW) |
| mean_drought |
Example script for DRYAD.R: An example R code to extract and clean occurrence data, extract fire characteristic data, and carry out the phylogenetic logistic regression
Funding
Natural Environment Research Council, Award: 1371737