Study concludes that seed dispersal services for post-fire forest regeneration can cost over 23 million euros per year

^{Translation: Diana Taborda}

A study led by researchers from the Department of Life Sciences (DCV) of the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the University of Coimbra (FCTUC) has concluded that seed dispersal services for the regeneration of burnt forests could cost more than 23 million euros per year.

The scientific paper 'What is the value of biotic seed dispersal in post-fire forest regeneration?', now published in the journal Conservation Letters, describes work carried out as part of the 'Life After Fire' project, which was launched following the 2017 wildfires in Portugal, with the main objective of studying the role of seed dispersal in the regeneration of forests in the aftermath of a fire.

Sérgio Timóteo, DCV researcher and project leader, explains that "in addition to determining the economic value of seed dispersal services, we also concluded that although the vast majority of plant species do not depend exclusively on animal seed dispersal, for about a third of these plants dispersal is a way of recolonising these burnt areas".

According to the scientific article, most species have multiple fire survival strategies, including the ability to resprout after a wildfire, the ability to germinate from the seed bank, and biotic (by animals) or abiotic (wind, etc) adaptations for seed dispersal. Although only eight species are exclusively dependent on biotic dispersal, 166 species (about a third of those assessed) have traits that facilitate animal dispersal. The relative importance of biotic dispersal is therefore estimated at 16%.

According to the FCTUC researcher, when major forest fires occur, as in 2017, "we intervene directly in some areas, mainly to stabilise the soil, sometimes even to prevent the spread of invasive alien plants. These are all active actions, human actions," he says, stressing the importance of animals and nature itself in this process.

In short, in this study "we estimate the economic value of the service of biotic seed dispersal, i.e. by animals, in post-fire regeneration in Portugal. We combine the budgeted costs of the government's Emergency Stabilisation Reports with a network analysis that estimates the dependency of the Portuguese flora on biotic seed dispersal and on alternative strategies for post-fire regeneration," explains Sérgio Timóteo, further adding that “replacing the services provided by seed dispersers during the post-fire regeneration of Portuguese forests would cost more than 23 million euros per year, highlighting the need for an integrated policy to promote resilient forests”.

The scientific article, by José Benedicto Royuela, José Miguel Costa, Ruben Heleno, Joaquim Sande Silva, Helena Freitas, Pedro Brito Lopes, Sara Beatriz Mendes and Sérgio Timóteo, is available here.