Postfire Palm Resprouting in the Amazonian Forest: are Underground Stems an Advantage?

Authors

  • Marcus Vinicius Athaydes Liesenfeld Federal University of Acre, Brazil
  • Gil Vieira National Institute of Amazonian Research, Brazil

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15359/prne.16-31.1

Keywords:

surface-fire, fire ecology, regeneration

Abstract

Despite the fire is the least studied impact among the current disorders affecting tropical American palms, the Arecaceae family is ideal for studies of resilience and impacts. The present study was the first to quantify and describe the postfire palm resprouting in the Amazon rainforest. We tested a set of juveniles and mature individuals of 10 palm species, to assess which morphological characteristics are related to postfire mortality or resprouting, so the aim of this study was to 1) record the possible response strategies of understory palms to fire disturbance; 2) compare the postfire responses between underground-stemmed and aerial stem species, and 3) compare the postfire responses between species with and without clonal ability. For all species of palm trees subjected to this experiment, the fire was not capable of eliminating all individuals, and after ~140 days after fire, we found that aerial stems had more basal sprouts than underground stems. Underground-stemmed species had more apical regrowth than for the aerial stems species. The number of resprouting individuals is greater in clonal species than in non-clonal species. Therefore, we conclude that palm species in the western Amazon have differential responses to fire impact.

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Published

2018-06-30

How to Cite

Athaydes Liesenfeld, M. V., & Vieira, G. (2018). Postfire Palm Resprouting in the Amazonian Forest: are Underground Stems an Advantage?. Perspectivas Rurales Nueva Época, 16(31), 11-23. https://doi.org/10.15359/prne.16-31.1

How to Cite

Athaydes Liesenfeld, M. V., & Vieira, G. (2018). Postfire Palm Resprouting in the Amazonian Forest: are Underground Stems an Advantage?. Perspectivas Rurales Nueva Época, 16(31), 11-23. https://doi.org/10.15359/prne.16-31.1

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