Smoke-stimulated recruitment
In many plant species from mediterranean ecosystems, germination is promoted by fire [1]; this effect may be driven by the heat [e.g., 2-4] or by the chemicals produced by the fire (e.g., smoke, 4,5]). Most information regarding to smoke-stimulated germination in the Mediterranean Basin comes from a few experiments performed in laboratory conditions. This approach does not consider factors that occur in the field, such as species interactions, density-dependent processes or the fact that seeds spent time in the soil. A recent field experiment performed in eastern Spain show that smoke increase overall seedling recruitment, specially seedlings of annual plant species [6]. However, despite most species had higher seedling establishment in the smoke than in the control subplots, there were very few species in which the effect of smoke was statistically significant, suggesting that the community response to smoke cannot be inferred from individual species; it is the sum of small differences in each species towards the same direction that produces a significant pattern at community scale. This emerging property of the community is often neglected by only considering germination experiments in the laboratory. The results also suggest that the effect of smoke in annual species of the Mediterranean Basin might be more relevant than previously thought.
References
[1] Keeley J.E., Bond W.J., Bradstock R.A., Pausas J.G. & Rundel P.W. 2012. Fire in Mediterranean Ecosystems: Ecology, Evolution and Management. Cambridge University Press. [The book]
[2] Paula S. & Pausas J.G. 2008. Burning seeds: Germinative response to heat treatments in relation to resprouting ability. Journal of Ecology 96 (3): 543 – 552. [pdf | doi]
[3] Moreira B. & Pausas J.G. 2012. Tanned or burned: The role of fire in shaping physical seed dormancy. PLoS ONE 7: e51523. [doi | plos | pdf | blog]
[4] Moreira B., Tormo J., Estrelles E., Pausas J.G. 2010. Disentangling the role of heat and smoke as germination cues in Mediterranean Basin flora. Annals of Botany 105: 627-635. [pdf | doi | post]
[5] Smoke-stimulated germination, jgpausas.blogs.uv.es, 2/Dec/2011.
[6] Tormo, J., B. Moreira, and J. G. Pausas. 2014. Field evidence of smoke-stimulated seedling emergence and establishment in Mediterranean Basin flora. Journal of Vegetation Science 25: 771-777 [doi | wiley | pdf]