Effects of fire on sandhill herbs: nutrients, mycorrhizae, and biomass allocation

Differences in growth responses, tissue and soil inorganic nutrients, and mycorrhizal relationships of four herbaceous species were studied on burned and unburned sandhill sites in south-central Florida, USA. Three species, (Aristida stricta, Liatris tenuifolia var. laevigata, and Pityopsis graminifolia) responded positively to conditions following the burn by increased vegetative growth and flowering. The fourth species, Balduina angustifolia, is a fire-sensitive biennial and its first-year rosettes were, with an occasional exception, unable to survive or resprout following fire. Availability of all soil inorganic nutrients examined (Ca, K, Mg, and P) was low, as were total nitrogen, soil organic matter, and pH. There was a slight nutrient pulse of phosphorus into the soil following burning. For two species (Aristida and Liatris), shoot tissue concentrations of several inorganic nutrients (especially N and P) were higher on the burned site than the unburned site following burning. These differences generally dissipated over time since burning. The high concentration of tissue nutrients postburn followed by a decline on the burned site may result from rapid nutrient uptake after fire and dilution of this concentration following restoration of plant mass. Despite low levels of soil inorganic nutrients, including phosphorus, mycotrophy was absent or weakly developed among the herbaceous species examined, except for the tap-rooted Balduina angustifolia. Colonization of host plants by vesicular mycorrhizal fungi was unaffected by burning. Mycorrhizal inoculum potentials of sandhill soil were extremely low, varying seasonally from (mean +/- 1 SE) 0.3 +/- 0.2 to 3.8 +/- 0.7%.