Jakub D Wieczorkowski, Caroline E R Lehmann, Sally Archibald, Sarah Banda, David J Goyder, Mokwani Kaluwe, Kondwani Kapinga, Isabel Larridon, Aluoneswi C Mashau, Elina Phiri, Stephen Syampungani
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Little is known about the response of ground layer plant communities to fire in Miombo ecosystems, which is a global blind spot of ecological understanding. We aim to (i) assess the impact of three experimentally imposed fire treatments on ground layer species composition, and compare it with patterns observed for trees; and (ii) analyse the effect of fire treatments on species richness to assess how responses differ among plant functional groups. METHODS: At a 60-year-long fire experiment in Zambia, we quantified the richness and diversity of ground layer plants in terms of taxa and functional groups across three experimental fire treatments of late dry-season fire, early dry-season fire, and fire exclusion...
March 12, 2024: Annals of Botany