Interspecific variation in post-disturbance growth responses of a savanna tree community and its implications for escaping the fire trap

Vegetation states in savannas are highly sensitive to tree growth rates, which determine whether individual trees can ‘escape’ periodic disturbances. Resprouting trees have lopsided shoot:root ratios and are often multi-stemmed, and these variables can modify post-disturbance growth rates and therefore the probability of escape. To date, few studies have systematically examined the implications of interspecific variation in these factors for escape. We conducted a two-year field experiment in lowveld savanna in South Africa and quantified post-disturbance growth characteristics of topkilled trees among 16 species. We examined the dependence of growth on pre-disturbance stem size across species, and the relationship between growth rates and the tendency of trees to produce a few large vs. many small resprouts following disturbance. We found that resprout growth was strongly influenced by pre-disturbance size, but the relationship did not vary among species. In contrast, our results showe...