Plant responses to fire in a Mexican arid shrubland

Abstract

Background: Fire responses of species in arid environments have only been scarcely studied. We studied four species (Dasyliron lucidum Zucc., Juniperus deppeana Steud., Echinocactus platyacanthus Link & Otto, and Agave potatorum Zucc.) in the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve, Mexico. The objectives were to describe and quantify survival and resprouting, as well as the factors determining them, for the selected species. Six months after a 330 ha wildfire in 2014, 32 plots were established on three transects. Forest dasometric and fire severity variables were recorded. Logistic regression was utilized to obtain mortality and resprouting probability models, as well as linear regression to detect relationships among post- and pre-fire variables. Results: All species had high survival rates (74.5 to 97.7%). All surviving D. lucidum individuals resprouted apically. For J. deppeana, the probability of mortality was directly related to fire scar height on the trunk and inversely related to its diameter, whereas the probability of crown recovery was inversely related to the proportion of the tree height scorch. For E. platyacanthus, necrosed height was directly related to plant height. There was a positive relationship between basal area and the emission of new leaves for the A. potatorum. Conclusions: In the different species, several traits that allowed high fire survival rates were observed (e.g., thick cortex or bark, fleshy non-flammable leaves, flammable leaves that reduce fire intensity, high volume to surface ratio). Many of these were primarily linked to drought resistance. All species gain fire resistance or tolerance as they increase in size. We concluded that the studied arid ecosystem of Mexico can withstand an altered or a base fire regime.