Abstract
In two forest types in southern Tasmania, eucalypt rainforest (mixed forest) and eucalypt dry sclerophyll forest, surface soils (0–10 cm) from stands that had been clear-felled and burned between 1976 and 1979 were compared with those from uncut, unburned stands. Factors compared were total organic C, N, P, K, Mg, Ca, Zn, Mn; pH; exchangeable Ca, Mg, and K; cation exchange capacity; extractable P; soil phosphate buffering capacity; and N-mineralisation rates. Sampling started in April 1979 and ended in October 1980.
Within each forest type, soils from burned coupes had higher mean values for pH, exchangeable cations, percent base saturation, and nitrate-N produced during aerobic incubation, and had lower mean values for exchangeable acidity and ammonium-N produced during aerobic incubation than soils from unburned coupes. In mixed forest only, soils from burned coupes had higher mean values for extractable P and soil phosphate buffering capacity, and lower mean values for total organic C than those of unburned coupes. There were only small differences between burned and unburned soils in cation exchange capacity and ammonium-N produced during anaerobic incubation.
For each burned coupe in mixed forest, with increase in time since burning there was a decrease in pH, an increase in exchangeable acidity, and a decrease in rate of production of nitrate: no changes were detected in other factors. It is concluded that, for clay soils developed on dolerite, the nutritional status of soil in both forest types is probably improved by burning. The improvement lasts for more than 4 years in mixed forest and more than two years in dry sclerophyll forest. Only minor leaching of nutrients to below 10 cm in depth is likely to occur in either type.
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Ellis, R.C., Lowry, R.K. & Davies, S.K. The effect of regeneration burning upon the nutrient status of soil in two forest types in southern Tasmania. Plant Soil 65, 171–186 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02374648
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02374648