Population Responses of Proteas to Fire

Example of a project conducted by the population ecology group at SANBI.

Protea plant resprouting after a fire. Seedling.

Example of a matrix projection model that we are using to examine the population responses of proteas to fire frequency. The figures below show a generalised protea life cycle with five stages: seed pool, vegetative plant, small, medium and large adult plant.

The first graph shows the possible life history transitions in a year without fire, the second graph shows transitions in a fire year, and the last graph shows the corresponding matrix model.