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Long-term post-fire dynamics of co-occurring woody species in Pinus brutia forests: the role of regeneration mode

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Abstract

Regeneration mode is one of the key attributes determining population structure and dynamics of plant species. We investigated long-term patterns after fire in the cover of plant species in a 100-year chronosequence of burned Pinus brutia forests in a humid Mediterranean climate region in Turkey. Significant trends were present in the change of cover in major species through post-fire chronosequence, and species with similar trends were clustered in relation to their regeneration modes. Obligate resprouters increased their cover from the early post-fire years to the later stages, while cover of obligate seeders with a soil seed bank increased in the early years, but then decreased through time. Facultative resprouters were at an intermediate position, with an increase in cover until mid-successional stages and then a decrease through time. The cover of the only obligate seeder with a canopy seed bank (P. brutia) followed a linear increasing trend during the succession. When species with the same regeneration mode were grouped, the same trends were observed with more explained variances. A few life-history traits were enough to explain the observed trends. Our study shows that regeneration mode is an explanatory functional grouping system for describing long-term post-fire dynamics of Mediterranean Basin woody species. We suggest that regeneration mode must be a major component of any vegetation or forest stand dynamics model in the Mediterranean Basin. This result has important implications for the management of Mediterranean Basin ecosystems, and can potentially be extrapolated to other Mediterranean-type fire-prone ecosystems.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Burçin Y. Kaynaş, Anıl Soyumert, Sinan Kaynaş, Hüseyin Yılmaz, Alper Türkoğlu and many undergraduate students for their help during the field studies, Haşim Altınözlü and Barış Özüdoğru for their help to identify some of the plant specimens, Atilla Küçükala, the Director of Marmaris National Park, for his logistical support, and Forest Management Directorate of Marmaris, Directorate of Marmaris National Park, and Aksaz Military Marine Base Command for allowing us to conduct our study in the areas under their responsibility. We thank Utku Perktaş and two anonymous referees for their improving comments on the manuscript, and Jennifer Kalvenas for her help in the English revision. The plant specimens were identified in the Herbarium of Hacettepe University (HUB). This study was financially supported by Hacettepe University Scientific Research Unit (Project No: 02.02.601.004), and was part of the requirements for the Ph.D. dissertation of Çağatay Tavşanoğlu submitted to Hacettepe University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Ecology, Department of Biology, Hacettepe University, Beytepe, 06800, Ankara, Turkey

    Çağatay Tavşanoğlu

  2. Institute of Natural Sciences, Yaşar University, Izmir, Turkey

    Behzat Gürkan

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  1. Çağatay Tavşanoğlu
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  2. Behzat Gürkan
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Correspondence to Çağatay Tavşanoğlu.

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Communicated by Katinka Ruthrof.

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Tavşanoğlu, Ç., Gürkan, B. Long-term post-fire dynamics of co-occurring woody species in Pinus brutia forests: the role of regeneration mode. Plant Ecol 215, 355–365 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-014-0306-2

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