Not only reseeder or resprouter plants: Trait syndromes and post‐fire responses of three iconic Mediterranean woody species

作者：Gianluigi Ottaviani, Heath Beckett, J. M. Costa‐Saura, Emiliano Agrillo, Gianmaria Bonari, C. Calfapietra, E. D'Andrea, P. Fiorucci, M. Lo Cascio, Marta Magnani, Silvia Portarena, Costantino Sirca, Mara Baudena, M. Millan · 发表于：Plant Biology · 年份：2026 · DOI：10.1111/plb.70213 · 被引用次数：1 · 研究领域：Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies、Fire effects on ecosystems、Tree Root and Stability Studies

Fire can profoundly affect ecosystem dynamics, species distribution and plant traits, especially in open biomes. Post-fire strategies, namely, resprouters and reseeders, offer a useful framework to examine eco-evolutionary relationships between plants and fire. However, whether resprouter and reseeder plants are consistently formed by distinct trait coordination (syndromes) and responses to fire at the intraspecific level and when considering the role of ontogeny, remain underexplored. This is a relevant lack as, within-species, plants can adjust their functioning and trait coordination can vary considerably along ontogeny. To address this gap, we analysed intraspecific trait coordination and post-fire responses, accounting for the effect of ontogeny in three widely distributed and locally abundant Mediterranean woody species: two resprouters (Erica arborea, Quercus ilex) and one reseeder (Cistus salviifolius). We collected 12 plant functional and architectural traits, including intraspecific variability, well related to fire and drought from three sites in Italy. We ran pairwise correlation and multivariate analyses to explore trait syndromes. We conducted linear regressions to examine relationships between fire regime (time since last fire) and trait responses. We then inspected whether fire regime affects key bivariate trait coordination and if ontogeny influences some trait-fire links. Findings are highly species-specific and generally do not align with a priori classific...