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Effect of fire on the palatability of plants in an African woodland savanna: varying impacts depending on plant functional groups

Fire and herbivores are two important drivers of changes in vegetation composition, quality and dynamics and both are highly related to each other. Herbivores are known to respond to fire both in terms of foraging decisions and distribution. However, little is known about the actual changes in plant...

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Autores principales: Stolter, Caroline, Joubert, David F., Uunona, Nekulilo, Nghalipo, Elise, Amputu, Vistorina, Felton, Annika M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8783561/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35111393
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12721
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author Stolter, Caroline
Joubert, David F.
Uunona, Nekulilo
Nghalipo, Elise
Amputu, Vistorina
Felton, Annika M.
author_facet Stolter, Caroline
Joubert, David F.
Uunona, Nekulilo
Nghalipo, Elise
Amputu, Vistorina
Felton, Annika M.
author_sort Stolter, Caroline
collection PubMed
description Fire and herbivores are two important drivers of changes in vegetation composition, quality and dynamics and both are highly related to each other. Herbivores are known to respond to fire both in terms of foraging decisions and distribution. However, little is known about the actual changes in plant chemistry following a fire event and how long these changes will last. We investigated the effect of fire on two different plant functional groups (grasses and woody species) in a woodland savanna of southern Africa. We studied chemical compounds known to be important for palatability of five perennial grass and seven woody species (trees and shrubs) common in the woodland savanna and known to be utilized by herbivores. We wanted to know if plant chemistry differs between a recently burned site (burned 2 years ago) and a control site, burned 16 years ago, and if grasses and woody species show similar relative differences between sites (i.e., the plants’ response to fire). We found a clear difference in chemical composition patterns between the plant functional groups, with an almost homogenous response to fire among woody species, but higher variability in response among grass species. Furthermore, we found that woody species maintained a higher nutritional value even 2 years after burning, whereas grasses did not show clear differences among the two investigated sites. Hence, few years after burning, woody plants might still serve as an attraction for herbivores, especially browsers, in contrast to grasses. The knowledge about these differences between the two functional groups in response to fire is beneficial for the development of management strategies for large herbivores whether domestic or wild.
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spelling pubmed-87835612022-02-01 Effect of fire on the palatability of plants in an African woodland savanna: varying impacts depending on plant functional groups Stolter, Caroline Joubert, David F. Uunona, Nekulilo Nghalipo, Elise Amputu, Vistorina Felton, Annika M. PeerJ Conservation Biology Fire and herbivores are two important drivers of changes in vegetation composition, quality and dynamics and both are highly related to each other. Herbivores are known to respond to fire both in terms of foraging decisions and distribution. However, little is known about the actual changes in plant chemistry following a fire event and how long these changes will last. We investigated the effect of fire on two different plant functional groups (grasses and woody species) in a woodland savanna of southern Africa. We studied chemical compounds known to be important for palatability of five perennial grass and seven woody species (trees and shrubs) common in the woodland savanna and known to be utilized by herbivores. We wanted to know if plant chemistry differs between a recently burned site (burned 2 years ago) and a control site, burned 16 years ago, and if grasses and woody species show similar relative differences between sites (i.e., the plants’ response to fire). We found a clear difference in chemical composition patterns between the plant functional groups, with an almost homogenous response to fire among woody species, but higher variability in response among grass species. Furthermore, we found that woody species maintained a higher nutritional value even 2 years after burning, whereas grasses did not show clear differences among the two investigated sites. Hence, few years after burning, woody plants might still serve as an attraction for herbivores, especially browsers, in contrast to grasses. The knowledge about these differences between the two functional groups in response to fire is beneficial for the development of management strategies for large herbivores whether domestic or wild. PeerJ Inc. 2022-01-19 /pmc/articles/PMC8783561/ /pubmed/35111393 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12721 Text en © 2022 Stolter et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Conservation Biology
Stolter, Caroline
Joubert, David F.
Uunona, Nekulilo
Nghalipo, Elise
Amputu, Vistorina
Felton, Annika M.
Effect of fire on the palatability of plants in an African woodland savanna: varying impacts depending on plant functional groups
title Effect of fire on the palatability of plants in an African woodland savanna: varying impacts depending on plant functional groups
title_full Effect of fire on the palatability of plants in an African woodland savanna: varying impacts depending on plant functional groups
title_fullStr Effect of fire on the palatability of plants in an African woodland savanna: varying impacts depending on plant functional groups
title_full_unstemmed Effect of fire on the palatability of plants in an African woodland savanna: varying impacts depending on plant functional groups
title_short Effect of fire on the palatability of plants in an African woodland savanna: varying impacts depending on plant functional groups
title_sort effect of fire on the palatability of plants in an african woodland savanna: varying impacts depending on plant functional groups
topic Conservation Biology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8783561/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35111393
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12721
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