Post-fire regeneration of Arbutus unedo L. in central Portugal: the role of plant size, fire severity and disturbance history

• Autor(a) principal: Cunha, José Luís Simões da
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/25449
• topic: Forest fires; Arbutus unedo; Plant size; Fire severity; Resprouters

Resprouting is a very important survival strategy that allows many plants to survive and recover after fire. Previous studies showed that pre-fire plant size and fire severity influence plants’ resprouting ability. In this thesis we analysed the effects of fire severity and pre-fire plant size of Arbutus unedo L., a common Ericaceae found on the Mediterranean regions, on its resprouting ability after the fire on October, 2017 in Penacova, as well as different methodologies of sampling (measuring plant height, branch length and diameter, stalk, canopy and twigs diameter). The strawberry trees, from three different sites with different disturbance histories, were classified as tree-like or shrub-like according to their pre-fire characteristics and were monitored for a year, comprising two sampling campaigns. Result revealed that fire severity negatively influenced the resprouting ability of individuals by the end of the first campaign but its effect faded with time, which could indicate that fire severity is not the best long term predictor of post-fire regeneration on Arbutus unedo. Plant size (height, branch length and diameter and canopy area), however, were significantly correlated with its resprouting ability on both field campaign, wether in resprouts length, diameter or number. It was also established that some field measurements of pre-fire plant characteristics are redundant, so in similar future studies it should not be necessary to spend as much time and resources on sampling individuals by opting for the easiest or fastest measurement, knowing that branch diameter is the most reliable one since unlike lengths or heights, it can still be used after wood removals. It was not possible to obtain statistical results that would verify the existance of regeneration differences related to the different types of strawberry trees or the sampling sites, possibly due to the limited number of individuals available for sampling.