Fire favors sexual precocity in a Mediterranean pine

[Methods] We selected 13 sites dominated by Pinus halepensis trees in the Valencia region (eastern Spain) across a range of altitudes and climatic conditions. In each site, we established 4 transects, spaced by at least 100 m. In each transect, we haphazardly selected and georeferenced 10 trees, separated by at least 10 m. For each tree, we measured its basal diameter (10 cm above ground) and the distance to the two closest trees. Then, we compute the annual growth rate as the basal diameter (cm) divided by the age (years) and the average of the distances to the 2 closest trees. Afterward, we estimated the age of each tree by counting whorls. For reproductive trees, we also estimated the age of each cone following the same method of counting whorls (avoiding immature cone cohorts; i.e., the last or last two cohorts depending on the sampling season) and recorded whether they were open (non-serotinous), closed (serotinous cones), or from the last cohort considered (closed but serotiny unknown). The retention of branches and cones in this species allowed us to estimate the age of the young tree and its cones (even if they were open), and therefore the age at first reproduction (tree age - age of the first cone) and the total number of stored cones (i.e. closed cones; an estimation of the canopy seed bank) for each tree. Please see “materials and methods” section within the paper for more details.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Guiote, Carmen, Pausas, J. G.
Other Authors:	Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España)
Format:	dataset biblioteca
Language:	English
Published:	Dryad 2022-10-11
Subjects:	Natural sciences, Evolutionary ecology, Fire traits, Global Change, Maturity age, Pinus halepensis, Serotiny,
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10261/283343 http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100004837 http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100003176 http://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.xgxd254km
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