Data and scripts from: "This is fine": form, function, and fire risk predict key dimensions of flammability in fire-adapted longleaf pine savanna

(1) With fire frequency predicted to increase globally, a more refined understanding of flammability traits, and how they are impacted by demographic and environmental variables, will be critical to better predict species- and community-level fire outcomes. Pausas, Keeley, and Schwilk (2017) re-cently proposed a multidimensional species-level flammability framework comprising three strate-gies: non-flammable, fast-flammable and hot-flammable. However, empirical data are needed to validate this framework.
(2) We measured six flammability traits across 93 species from the fire-dependent longleaf pine-wiregrass ecosystem. We assess how traits are related to one another and investigate how fire risk, population fire response, and growth form predict species- and community-level flammability traits.
(3) Individuals and species were distributed continuously across two flammability axes (hot- and fast-flammable). We found that community-level flammability was not predicted by fire risk. However, complex interactions between fire risk, growth form, and population responses to fire predict-ed hot-flammability at the species level.
(4) Here, we identify two dimensions of variability in the traits that make up the multivariate syndrome of flammability in our system, providing support for the framework introduced by Pausas, Keeley, and Schwilk.