Collaborating Across Continents to Understand Fire and Savanna Dynamics

This week the Ecosystems Lab welcomed back Dr Imma Oliveras Menor, Senior Researcher in Disturbance Ecology and Global Change, currently based at AMAP-IRD in Montpellier, France. Imma has longstanding collaborative ties with the lab, and her visit highlighted over a decade of joint research on fire, drought, and vegetation dynamics in the Brazilian Cerrado. Her work examines how changes in abiotic conditions influence plant form and function, and how these responses scale up to shape ecosystem structure and biodiversity.

The Brazilian Cerrado, the world’s largest tropical savanna, comprises 19 ecoregions and supports exceptional biological diversity. A central focus of this collaboration has been the Cerrado’s ecological relationship with fire. Through the CerFogo Project, launched in 2016, Imma and colleagues from UNEMAT (State University of Mato Gross) and ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation) have combined experimental fire reintroduction at the Serra das Araras research station with long-term monitoring of vegetation composition, structure, and ecosystem function. This includes work on net primary productivity, nutrient fluxes, and taxonomic and functional diversity, developed in collaboration with Dr Manoela Machado, Francisco Navarro Rosales, Natasha Lutz and other members of the Ecosystems Lab.

The CerFogo Project conducts experimental fire-reintroduction to investigate the role of fire as a management tool in conserving the Cerrado's biodiversity.

Building on this monitoring framework, a recent study led by Wesley J.A. Cruz examines how fire frequency shapes tree survival strategies. The study identifies three broad fire-tolerance strategies, described as thrivers, sensitive, and survival types, each associated with distinct functional traits. The findings demonstrate how annual fire in the Cerrado alters resprouting dynamics and shifts the relationship between dominant and subordinate species within communities.

Imma’s presentation highlighted the strength of long-standing research collaborations across international institutions and partners to foster multidisciplinarity and transdisciplinary approaches. By integrating experimental fire treatments, trait-based ecology, and long-term ecosystem monitoring, this partnership continues to generate insight into how disturbance and climate interact in tropical savanna systems.

Experimental fire regimes help researchers explore how fire reshapes resprouting patterns in trees like this one in the Brazilian Cerrado.