Friends of the Ahart Herbarium Annual Meeting and Special Presentations

Over the past century much has been written on the evolution of the California flora. Drivers of change have focused on the role of climate, topographic relief, and substrates, however the role of fires as a selective force has largely been ignored. Macrofossil data provide convincing evidence that fires have been a regular feature of California landscapes throughout the Cenozoic. Understanding how fire has shaped plant adaptations requires recognition of the different fire regimes in a range of ecoregions in the state. In this presentation I will explore fire regimes in herbaceous, shrubland and forest types throughout the state and how different regimes have selected for different fire-adaptations. Some traits such as vegetative resprouting from burned skeletons appear to be quite ancient and not always associated with fire. Others such as the basal burls (lignotubers) that give rise to postfire resprouts in a few genera, as well as smoke-stimulated seed germination of soil stored seed banks evident in both woody and herbaceous taxa, date to the Miocene and are associated with the rise of the Mediterranean climate, which increased fire predictability. Looking forward I will discuss how global changes are likely to alter fire regimes and their impact on different fire response types.
This is a zoom event, you will have to register at https://csuchico.zoom.us/meeting/register/rf1J4Qu4SVGGNjBY7uvzuw#/registration