ABSTRACT
Cerrado tree species can survive fire by resprouting. Generally, large and less damaged plants produce new branches and leaves from stem buds (aerial), whereas small and highly injured individuals would resprout from the stem base or from underground organs (basal). We compared the three most common Cerrado woody plant species in a savanna area of the IBGE Ecological Reserve, Brasília, Brazil, aiming to verify if the resprouting strategy (aerial or basal) differed between species and if that was related to plant size. Guapira noxia had small-sized plants, a higher percentage of trunk charred and more individuals with basal resprouting, while Eriotheca pubescens had large-sized plants with a greater intensity of aerial resprouting, Basal resprouting was associated with disturbance severity for Dalbergia miscolobium, while plant size was associated with aerial resprouting for E. pubescens. None of variables explained the variation in resprouting of G. noxia. The results showed that the post-fire regeneration strategy varied according to the species, confirming other studies of post-fire resprouting.
Keywords
Cerrado; disturbance; fire; resprout; size; tree
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