DOI: 10.5061/dryad.j6q573njb
title: Dataset: A three-dimensional approach to general plant fire syndromes

description: 1. Plant fire syndromes are usually defined as combinations of fire
 response traits, the most common being resprouting (R) and seeding (S).
 Plant flammability (F), on the other hand, refers to a plant’s effects on
 communities and ecosystems. Despite its important ecological and
 evolutionary implications, F has rarely been considered to define plant
 fire syndromes and, if so, usually separated from response syndromes. 2.
 We propose a three-dimensional model that combines R, S and F,
 encapsulating both plant response to fire regimes and the capacity to
 promote them. Each axis is divided into three possible standardized
 categories, reflecting low, medium and high values of each variable, with
 a total of 27 possible combinations of R, S and F. 3. We hypothesized that
 different fire histories should be reflected in the position of species
 within the three-dimensional space and that this should help assess the
 importance of fire as an evolutionary force in determining R-S-F
 syndromes. 4. To illustrate our approach we compiled information on the
 fire syndromes of 24 dominant species of different growth forms from the
 Chaco seasonally-dry forest of central Argentina, and we compared them to
 33 species from different Mediterranean-type climate ecosystems (MTCEs) of
 the world. 5. Chaco and MTCEs species differed in the range (seven
 syndromes vs. thirteen syndromes, respectively) and proportion of extreme
 syndromes (i.e. species with extreme values of R, S and/or F) representing
 29% of species in the Chaco vs. 45% in the MTCEs. 6. Additionally, we
 explored the patterns of R, S and F of 4032 species from seven regions
 with contrasting fire histories, and found significantly higher
 frequencies of extreme values (predominantly high) of all three variables
 in MTCEs compared to the other regions, where intermediate and low values
 predominated, broadly supporting our general hypothesis. 7. The proposed
 three-dimensional approach should help standardize comparisons of fire
 syndromes across taxa, growth forms and regions with different fire
 histories. This will contribute to the understanding of the role of fire
 in the evolution of plant traits and assist vegetation modelling in the
 face of changes in fire regimes.
description: <strong>Data collection
 for Chaco species</strong> From previous studies, we compiled data on
 post-fire resprouting (R) (Jaureguiberry 2012; Jaureguibery et al. 2020),
 germination capacity after heat shock treatments (S) (Jaureguiberry
 & Díaz) and flammability (F) (Jaureguiberry et al. 2011) of 24
 dominant species of the seasonally-dry Chaco forest of central Argentina
 (hereafter Chaco). We then transformed the original data from the
 mentioned studies into three possible categorical ordinal values: 1, 2 or
 3, indicating low, medium and high values of each variable, respectively.
 To do so, we used the following criteria:
 1) For R data:
 we focused on the survival
 percentage recorded for each species (Jaureguiberry et al.,
 2020) as a proxy for
 resprouting capacity (Pérez-Harguindeguy et al.,
 2013). This was because
 this variable is widely used in fire studies and has a standard scale and
 range of values, therefore facilitating comparisons between species from
 different regions. Survival percentages were assigned to one of three
 possible intervals: 0 to 33 %; 34 to 66 % and from 67 to 100%, and then
 each interval was assigned the value 1, 2 or 3 respectively, indicating
 low, medium and high values of resprouting
 capacity. 2) For S data: based on germination response to
 heat shock treatments we classified species as heat-sensitive (germination
 lower than the control), heat-tolerant (germination similar to the
 control) or heat-stimulated (germination higher than the control) (see
 details in Jaureguiberry
 and Díaz 2015). Each of
 these categories was respectively assigned a value of 1, 2 or 3.
 3) For
 F data: while original measurements included burning rate, maximum
 temperature and biomass consumed (see details in Jaureguiberry et al. 2011), with the purpose of comparing Chaco species
 with species from other regions, and considering that burning rate is
 rarely reported, data of the two latter variables were collected from
 studies that followed Jaureguiberry et al. (2011). A PCA followed by
 cluster analysis allowed classifying species into the following
 categories: 1=low flammability; 2=moderate flammability; and 3=high
 flammability.  
 <strong>Data collection
 for other regions</strong> We performed an unstructured literature review
 of fire-related traits relevant to our model. Whenever possible, we
 searched for the same or similar variables to those used for the Chaco,
 namely survival percentage, germination response to heat shock, and
 variables related to flammability (e.g. maximum temperature, biomass
 consumed and burning rate), as proxies for R, S and F, respectively.
 Classification into different R intervals was
 based either on quantitative data on survival percentage, or on
 qualitative information from major databases. For example, resprouting
 capacity reported as “low”, or “high” (e.g. Tavşanoğlu & Pausas, 2018)
 were assigned R values of 1 and 3,
 respectively. For Southern Australian species, those reported as “fire
 killed” and “weak resprouting” (Falster et al., 2021) were assigned a value of 1, while those reported
 as “intermediate resprouting” and “strong resprouting” were assigned
 values of 2 and 3, respectively. The vast majority of records in our
 dataset refer to resprouting of individuals one growing season after the
 fire. Flammability data for most of the species were based on quantitative
 measurements that have used the method of Jaureguiberry et al. (2011),
 which was standardised following the criteria explained earlier. However,
 for some species, classification was based either on other quantitative
 measures that followed other methodologies (e.g. measures based on plant
 parts such as twigs or leaves, or fuel beds) or on qualitative
 classifications reported in the literature (most of which are in turn
 based on reviews of quantitative measurements from previous studies). We
 standardised the original data collected for the other regions following
 the same approach as for the Chaco. We then built contingency tables to
 analyse each region and to compare between regions.
 The curated total number of
 records from our literature review was 4411 (records for R, S and F, were
 3399, 678 and 334, respectively) for 4,032 species (many species had
 information on two variables, and very few on the three variables). The
 database covers a wide taxonomic range, encompassing species from
 approximately 1,250 genera and 180 botanical families, belonging to ten
 different growth forms, and coming from seven major regions with a wide
 range of evolutionary histories of fire, from long and intense
 (Mediterranean-Type Climate Ecosystems) to very recent (New
 Zealand).
description: The provided files operate with Excel.
 <strong>File 1</strong>
 <strong>Data file with full list of
 records:</strong> File containing
 a full list of records of standardised values of resprouting (R), seeding
 (S) and flammability (F) obtained for species from different regions,
 through an unstructured literature review. Ordinal categorical values 1, 2 and 3 indicate
 low, intermediate and high values of the corresponding
 variable. Cells with "N/A"
 indicate data not available. Total
 number of records = 4,411; total number of species = 4,032.
 References for the "Source" column are provided as
 a separate file.   
 <strong>File 2</strong>
 <strong>List of references used to compile the
 database:</strong> File containing the list of references with full
 citations for the "Source" column of the data file.