Intraspecific variation in shoot flammability in Dracophyllum rosmarinifolium is not predicted by habitat environmental conditions

作者：Xinglei Cui, Adrian M. Paterson, George L. W. Perry, Sarah V. Wyse, Md Azharul Alam, Congde Huang, Shixing Zhou, Lin Xiao, Changhong Lai, Fang He, Dongyu Cao, Kate Marshall, Timothy J. Curran · 发表于：Forest Ecosystems · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.1016/j.fecs.2022.100017 · 被引用次数：10 · 研究领域：Fire effects on ecosystems、Plant Parasitism and Resistance、Plant responses to water stress

Flammability is a compound plant trait that can vary significantly across natural populations within species. Investigating intraspecific variation in flammability provides insights into the evolution of plant flammability and inform understanding of wildfire risk and behaviour in different habitats. We measured four flammability variables, representing ignitibility (time to ignition), sustainability (total burning time), combustibility (maximum temperature during burning) and consumability (percentage of biomass consumed by fire) to assess the shoot-level flammability of Dracophyllum rosmarinifolium (G. Forst.) (Ericaceae), a polymorphic endemic species distributed throughout New Zealand. We examined the relationship between flammability components and a suite of climatic and geographic variables (elevation, latitude, mean annual temperature (MAT), mean annual rainfall (MAR) of the sample locations, etc.). We measured shoot-level flammability components of 62 individuals across eight populations. Burning time, maximum temperature and burnt biomass were positively correlated with each other, while ignition score was independent of other flammability components. All flammability components varied significantly across the eight populations. The habitat conditions we considered were not related to any of the shoot-level flammability components of D. rosmarinifolium. Intraspecific variation in flammability in D. rosmarinifolium may be a byproduct of selection on other functional ...