Adaptive plant traits under anthropogenic burning regimes: a database for UK heath and mire plant species

Premise

Humans have used fire to manage landscapes for millennia, but this use of fire is declining in many ecosystems. Understanding how plants respond to these changes is key to predicting ecosystem resilience and impacts on services such as biodiversity and carbon sequestration. However, many ecosystems lack data on plant fire responses. A solution is to infer these responses through studying functional traits that offer fitness benefits under fire by enabling species to resist fire, or persist through fire, by resprouting or recruitment from stored seed banks or dispersed seed. Studying these traits helps predict species performance under fire.

Methods

We used a trait-based approach to create a database of fire-relevant traits and fire responses for vascular and nonvascular plant species in UK heath and mire ecosystems managed by fire. By reviewing the available literature, we collected data on traits adaptive under frequent burns for 153 plant taxa that could then be used to make predictions about fire effects.

Results

Of the 153 taxa assessed, 97% had fire-adaptive traits; 149 taxa had resistance and/or persistence traits, enabling survival or regeneration after fire. Additionally, 20 taxa showed fire-enhanced recruitment, while only four lacked traits aiding survival during or after fire.

Conclusions

The database created here is designed to be a resource for those who study and manage heath and mire ecosystems. The use of fire in areas where heath is underlain by peat is much debated, and this database can inform how changing or removing the use of fire will impact plant communities.