- Title
- Spatial and temporal heterogeneity of plant flammability
- Creator
- Calitz, Wynand
- Subject
- Forest plants
- Subject
- Forest ecology Plants -- Adaptation
- Date Issued
- 2018
- Date
- 2018
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- MSc
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/23500
- Identifier
- vital:30572
- Description
- Heterogeneity in the natural environment has led to plants adapting traits to fit a niche. Within natural systems, fire has been a major driver of vegetation across the globe. Flammability has been suggested by many to be a trait adapted to reoccurring fire events. Much of the literature on flammability is theoretical and little has been done to cement it as a functional trait. In this thesis, I explore flammability across a wide range of plant species from both fire-free and -driven communities and compare observed results to other functional traits to identify if any link may exist between fire and being flammable. I further focus on the impact moisture availability may have on flammability as fire regimes are often correlated to rainfall season. Lastly, I investigate how different vegetation types respond to seasonal climate in terms of flammability. As a functional trait, flammability does correlate with traits associated with fire-driven system (e.g. small leaves in dense twig matrix). However, fire associated traits were also observed in fire-free species (Forest, Thicket, and Nama-Karoo), and in some cases traits not associated to fire proved flammable (e.g. large leaves on trees). I find that at a regional scale, plant moisture only correlates to flammability when rainfall amounts are well above or below average (e.g. drought). I also identify that species have different responses to moisture fluctuations and that inherent or accidental responses may influence observed flammability (e.g. trichomes). Lastly, I note that some biomes indicate strong association to season or climate (Fynbos and Thicket), while others indicate plasticity towards weather with species having different responses (Grassland). The study is the first to present estimates of flammability across a large number of species sampled at different times of the year. Future research will have to approach flammability as a meta-analysis by experimenting on different scales, particularly temporal and spatial scales.
- Format
- v, 75 leaves
- Format
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Science
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Nelson Mandela University
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