Regeneration from seeds in South American savannas, in particular the Brazilian Cerrado

South American savannas are an ancient, open, and species-rich ecosystem, currently threatened by numerous anthropogenic impacts, including human-driven climate change. In this chapter, we synthesize available evidence on how climate change likely will affect regeneration from seeds, focusing on the Brazilian Cerrado, a Neotropical mosaic of vegetation types. We conducted a literature survey to evaluate the main environmental drivers (fire, temperature, drought) affecting regeneration of plants from seeds in a changing climate. Unlike Mediterranean ecosystems, germination of most Cerrado species is not stimulated by fire-related cues, but heat-tolerant propagules would be selected under increasing fire frequency scenarios. Emergence from soil seed banks is closely related to the distinct rainy season, but seed drought tolerance and seed bank recruitment are not well studied. We propose a list of key research areas that need to be addressed to increase our predictive power on the effects of climate change on regeneration of plants from seeds in tropical savannas.