PARENT SESSION
Poster Session #41: Plant Demography.
Thursday, August 9, 2001. Presentation from 3:30 PM to 5:00 PM. Exhibition Hall

The effects of burn intensity and spatial genotype change on post fire size change in Vaccinium stamineum.

Skinner, Jeffrey¹, Fore, Stephanie¹, Kelrick, Michael¹, ¹

ABSTRACT- Vaccinium stamineum L., a clonal shrub, forms distinct patches in the fire adapted communities of the southeastern U.S. A patch's size is influenced by its genotypes, which reflect the dynamics of clonal propagation, regrowth and recruitment. The changes in patch size and genotype composition of V. stamineum were measured after a managed fire in a 1 ha scrub oak/pine sand hills site in the summer of 1994. Burn intensity was catagorized at each patch. Pre- and post-fire patch sizes were estimated by the distances of patch edges from the arbitrary center in each cardinal direction. Leaf samples were taken from the center of each patch and the edges in each cardinal direction. Genetic data were collected from leaf samples of 23 patches using Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD). Four markers of the C-02 primer were used to discriminate 15 RAPD profiles from our sample of 113 stems. The effects of burn intensity, center genotype change and peripheral genotype change on positive or negative patch size change were tested with categorical models in the SAS statistical software. No peripheral genotype change and high burn intensity were positively associated with the probability of increased patch size after fire. Their interaction was also a significant part of the variation in the model. Burning may allow for rapid clonal regrowth and spread of V. stamineum patches in fire adapted vegetation.

KEY WORDS: Vaccinium stamineum, fire management, clonal growth, spatial genotype changes