. Effects of volcanic ash deposition on the early recovery of gap vegetation in Northwester Patagonian steppes.

GHERMANDI L.; GONZALEZ S.; GHERMANDI, L., TELESCA L., DE TORRES CURTH M. AND FRANZESE J.; ODDI, F.

JOURNAL OF ARID ENVIRONMENTS

ACADEMIC PRESS LTD-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2015 vol. 122 p. 154 - 160

0140-1963

Volcanic eruptions can cause changes in plant communities through the effects of ash fall.We studied theeffect of ash deposition on vegetation recovery in inter-plant patches (gaps) following the eruption of thePuyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano (June 2011) in the Northwestern Patagonian steppe of Argentina. Weestimated the aboveground vegetation cover and the seed bank abundance (April 2012) in gaps with andwithout ash (November 2011 and December 2012). We compared the sampled data with studies performedin the area before the eruption. Total plant cover was greater in gaps with ash compared to gapswithout ash. Ash deposition suppressed cover of therophyte exotic species, but augmented total coverdue to the increase of geophyte cover. Pre- and post-eruption soil seed bank was dominated by therophytes,mostly exotic species. However, ash deposition decreased the abundance of the total seed bank,including therophyte species. The position of buds and plant size in relation to ash layer thickness wereimportant in determining plant recovery. Our results indicate that ash derived from volcanic activity canchange species abundance and composition of steppe gaps that are important for the regeneration ofmatrix species.