Short-term effects of a winter wildfire on diversity and intensity of soil microbial function in the subalpine grassland of western Sichuan,China

Aims For sustainably managing the subalpine grassland of western Sichuan, a post-fire recovery in diversity and intensity of soil microbial function was studied.
Methods The activities of seven soil enzymes, including β-glucosidase, acid phosphatase, alkaline phosphatase, urease, sucrase, protease, catalase, and fluorescein diacetate hydrolase, were measured on soil samples collected from burned and unburned sites in the study area following a wildfire on 5 December 2010. The diversity and intensity of soil microbial function were estimated by the methods of Bending and Perucci.
Important findings In this study, we found that the activities of the seven soil enzymes in the 0-5 cm soil layer were all increased significantly by the fire, but the responses to fire and soil depth varied among different soil enzymes. The alkaline phosphatase appeared to be a good indicator of the short-term responses in the diversity and intensity of soil microbial function to fire in this area. On the whole, although fire enhanced the surface soil microbial function to some extent, the diversity and intensity of soil microbial function were not significantly affected by the fire in the 0-20 cm soil layer. Future research on the functional stability of soil microbial community could better reveal the underlying mechanisms of the impact of disturbance on soil microbial biodiversity.