The effect of fire on nutrients in a pine forest soil |
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Authors: | P Kutiel Z Naveh |
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Institution: | (1) Lowdermilk Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, 32000 Haifa, Israel |
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Abstract: | The effect of a hot summer fire on soil nutrient contents in the upper 2 cm of Aleppo pine forest with a dense woody understory
was studied from September 1985 to May 1986.
In comparison with the adjacent unburned forest, total nitrogen decreased by 25% but available forms of nitrogen were much
higher. In burned and unburned soils there was a similar trend to increase and decrease in NH
4
+
−N, However, while (NO
2
−
+NO
3
−
−N decreased in the unburned soil it rose rapidly in the burned ash soil. Total phosphorus increased by 300% after the fire
but decreased again 2 months later. Also water-soluble P increased up to November and then decreased to the levels of the
unburned soils. The same was true for electrical conductivity and pH, increasing immediately after the fire and then leveling
off again.
This increase in nutrient levels in the “ash soil” was reflected in the striking increase in shoot and root biomass and in
the content of N, P, Mg, K, Ca, Zn and Fe in wheat and clover plants grown in pots in these soils. These nutrient levels were
much higher in the wheat plants, which also produced 12 times more seeds in the “ash soil.”
It seems that fire in these pine forests causes a short-term flush of the mineral elements in the upper “ash soil” layer which
is reverted gradually via the herbaceous post-fire to the ecosystem. |
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Keywords: | Aleppo pine fire Israel soil nutrients |
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