Influence of soil moisture on the nodulation of post fire seedlings of Ceanothus spp. growing in the Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California

During the dry season (early May through September of 1994), following a fall 1993 wildfire, a survey of seedling nodulation was conducted at several sites in the Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California. Seedlings of Ceanothus spinosus, C. megacarpus, C. oliganthus , and C. cuneatus were manually excavated. During this period, only 12 of the 182 seedlings excavated were nodulated, and all of the nodulated seedlings were found in the relatively moist clay soils of a stream bank. No nodules were observed on the 170 seedlings excavated from the drier sites. An irrigation experiment was established in midsummer to assess whether water stress inhibits nodulation of post-fire Ceanothus seedlings. Four plots with numerous seedlings of C. cuneatus and C. spinosus were irrigated with distilled water and monitored over a 9-week period. There was a significant increase in nodulation frequency, water potential, stomatal conductance, transpiration, shoot elongation, and photosynthetic rate of irrigated seedlings compared with adjacent controls. Although these data support the hypothesis that water stress inhibits nodulation. it is unclear whether this is because of an effect of soil moisture on the nodulation capacity of the soils (i.e. on the size and physiological state of the soil Frankia population) or to a host plant response to drought which might prevent actinorhizal root infection and/or nodule development.