The Response of Spore Germination of Mosses to Single and Combined Fire-Related Cues.

Plants in flammable ecosystems have different response strategies to fire, such as increasing germination after exposure to smoke and break of dormancy through heat shock. Peatlands are ecosystems that are more likely to be disturbed by fire with increasing temperatures, but it is not clear how fire affects spore germination of , the dominant plants in peatlands. Here, we hypothesize that spores respond positively to single and combined treatments of moderate heat and smoke (by increased germinability), while spore germinability decreases in response to high temperature. We exposed the spores of four selected species (, , and ) collected from peatlands in the Changbai Mountains to heat (40, 60 and 100 °C), on its own and combined with smoke-water treatments. Our results showed that a heat of 100 °C inhibited the spore germination or even killed spores of all species, while spore germination of three (, and ) of the four species was promoted by 40 and 60 °C heat compared to the control (20 °C). Hollow species ( and ) showed a stronger positive responsive to heat than hummock species ( and ). spores responded positively to the combined heat and smoke treatment while the other species did not. For the first time, we demonstrate the positive effects of heat on its own and in combination with smoke on spore germination in wetland mosses, which may be important for the establishment and persistence of peatmoss populations after fire.