Woody plant resprouting has received considerable attention in the last two decades as human disturbances continue to encroach on terrestrial ecosystems globally. We examined the regeneration mechanisms of a Caatinga dry forest in the context of slash-and-burn agriculture and resprouting ability of the local flora. We excavated two old fields (from 32) experiencing early forest regeneration dominated by the tree Pityrocarpa moniliformis (Fabaceae) to map clonal propagation and, in parallel, submitted 260 seedlings from 13 woody plant species to experimental clipping. What seemed to be ‘seedlings’ popping up around P. moniliformis stumps and remaining adults actually were condensed sets of root suckers connected via complex networks of long, ramified shallow horizontal roots without taproots. We mapped respectively 39 and 783 connected root suckers, which summed 96 m and 910 m in root length. Regarding the seedlings, 33% resprouted across nine species with resprouting rates varying between 5–100%. Seedling height before clipping positively influenced resprouting vigour. Our preliminary results suggest that the Caatinga dry forest supports a relatively high proportion of resprouting species, some of them able to clonally propagate and playing an ecosystem-level role by responding to early forest regeneration and high abundance/biomass across both regenerating and old-growth forests.

中文翻译：

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广泛的克隆繁殖和重新发芽推动巴西干旱森林的再生

在过去的二十年里，随着人类干扰继续侵占全球陆地生态系统，木本植物的再发芽受到了相当大的关注。我们在刀耕火种农业和当地植物群的再发芽能力的背景下检查了卡廷加干旱森林的再生机制。我们挖掘了两块老田（从 32 块开始），经历了以树木为主的早期森林再生串珠果香（豆科）绘制克隆繁殖图，同时将来自 13 种木本植物的 260 株幼苗提交给实验性修剪。周围冒出的似乎是“幼苗”串珠形假单胞菌树桩和剩余的成虫实际上是一组浓缩的根吸盘，它们通过没有主根的长而分叉的浅水平根的复杂网络连接起来。我们分别绘制了 39 和 783 个相连的根吸盘，根长总和为 96 m 和 910 m。关于幼苗，33% 的 9 个物种重新发芽，重新发芽率在 5-100% 之间变化。修剪前的幼苗高度对再萌发力有积极影响。我们的初步结果表明，卡廷加干旱森林支持相对较高比例的再生物种，其中一些能够通过响应早期森林再生和再生和旧生长的高丰度/生物量来克隆繁殖并发挥生态系统水平的作用森林。