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Does rapid utilization of elevated nutrient availability allow eucalypts to dominate in the tropical savannas of Australia?
Northern Australia's savannas are among the most fire‐prone biomes on Earth and are dominated by eucalypts (Eucalyptus and Corymbia spp.). It is not clear what processes allow this group to dominate under such extreme fire frequencies and whether a superior ability to compete for nutrients and...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
John Wiley and Sons Inc.
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7244804/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32489628 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6168 |
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author | Paramjyothi, Harinandanan Murphy, Brett P. Lawes, Michael J. Rossiter‐Rachor, Natalie A. Richards, Anna E. |
author_facet | Paramjyothi, Harinandanan Murphy, Brett P. Lawes, Michael J. Rossiter‐Rachor, Natalie A. Richards, Anna E. |
author_sort | Paramjyothi, Harinandanan |
collection | PubMed |
description | Northern Australia's savannas are among the most fire‐prone biomes on Earth and are dominated by eucalypts (Eucalyptus and Corymbia spp.). It is not clear what processes allow this group to dominate under such extreme fire frequencies and whether a superior ability to compete for nutrients and water might play a role. There is evidence that eucalypts are adapted to frequent fires; juvenile eucalypts escape the fire trap by growing rapidly in height between fires. However, non‐eucalypts are less able to escape the fire trap and tend to have stand structures strongly skewed toward suppressed juveniles. The mechanisms that drive these contrasting fire responses are not well understood. Here, we describe the results of a controlled glasshouse seedling experiment that evaluated the relative importance of nutrient and water availability in determining height growth and biomass growth of two eucalypt and one noneucalypt tree species, common in northern Australian savannas. We demonstrate that growth of eucalypt seedlings is particularly responsive to nutrient addition. Eucalypt seedlings are able to rapidly utilize soil nutrients and accumulate biomass at a much greater rate than noneucalypt seedlings. We suggest that a seasonal spike in nutrient availability creates a nutrient‐rich microsite that allows eucalypt seedlings to rapidly gain height and biomass, increasing their likelihood of establishing successfully and reaching a fire‐resistant size. Our results extend our understanding of how eucalypts dominate northern Australian savannas under extremely high fire frequencies. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7244804 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-72448042020-06-01 Does rapid utilization of elevated nutrient availability allow eucalypts to dominate in the tropical savannas of Australia? Paramjyothi, Harinandanan Murphy, Brett P. Lawes, Michael J. Rossiter‐Rachor, Natalie A. Richards, Anna E. Ecol Evol Original Research Northern Australia's savannas are among the most fire‐prone biomes on Earth and are dominated by eucalypts (Eucalyptus and Corymbia spp.). It is not clear what processes allow this group to dominate under such extreme fire frequencies and whether a superior ability to compete for nutrients and water might play a role. There is evidence that eucalypts are adapted to frequent fires; juvenile eucalypts escape the fire trap by growing rapidly in height between fires. However, non‐eucalypts are less able to escape the fire trap and tend to have stand structures strongly skewed toward suppressed juveniles. The mechanisms that drive these contrasting fire responses are not well understood. Here, we describe the results of a controlled glasshouse seedling experiment that evaluated the relative importance of nutrient and water availability in determining height growth and biomass growth of two eucalypt and one noneucalypt tree species, common in northern Australian savannas. We demonstrate that growth of eucalypt seedlings is particularly responsive to nutrient addition. Eucalypt seedlings are able to rapidly utilize soil nutrients and accumulate biomass at a much greater rate than noneucalypt seedlings. We suggest that a seasonal spike in nutrient availability creates a nutrient‐rich microsite that allows eucalypt seedlings to rapidly gain height and biomass, increasing their likelihood of establishing successfully and reaching a fire‐resistant size. Our results extend our understanding of how eucalypts dominate northern Australian savannas under extremely high fire frequencies. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2020-04-07 /pmc/articles/PMC7244804/ /pubmed/32489628 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6168 Text en © 2020 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Original Research Paramjyothi, Harinandanan Murphy, Brett P. Lawes, Michael J. Rossiter‐Rachor, Natalie A. Richards, Anna E. Does rapid utilization of elevated nutrient availability allow eucalypts to dominate in the tropical savannas of Australia? |
title | Does rapid utilization of elevated nutrient availability allow eucalypts to dominate in the tropical savannas of Australia? |
title_full | Does rapid utilization of elevated nutrient availability allow eucalypts to dominate in the tropical savannas of Australia? |
title_fullStr | Does rapid utilization of elevated nutrient availability allow eucalypts to dominate in the tropical savannas of Australia? |
title_full_unstemmed | Does rapid utilization of elevated nutrient availability allow eucalypts to dominate in the tropical savannas of Australia? |
title_short | Does rapid utilization of elevated nutrient availability allow eucalypts to dominate in the tropical savannas of Australia? |
title_sort | does rapid utilization of elevated nutrient availability allow eucalypts to dominate in the tropical savannas of australia? |
topic | Original Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7244804/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32489628 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6168 |
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