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Changes in leaf nutrient traits in a wildfire chronosequence

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Abstract

The effect of wildfire on ecosystem function is gaining interest since climate change is expected to increase fire frequency and intensity in many forest systems. Fire alters the nutritional status of forest ecosystems, affecting ecosystem function and productivity, but further studies evaluating changes in leaf nutrient traits induced by forest wildfires are still needed. We used a 17-year-old Pinus canariensis wildfire chronosequence to elucidate the nature of nutrient limitations in natural and unmanaged pine forest in the Canary Islands. Pine needles were sampled in winter and spring and analysed for N and P concentrations. As expected, we found the lowest leaf N and leaf P in recently burned plots. However, the leaf N:P ratio was higher in burned versus unburned plots, suggesting that the decrease in P availability due to the fire is larger than that of N. For all leaf traits and sampling dates, leaf trait values in burned plots matched those observed in unburned plots 17 years after a fire. The N:P ratio found in P. canariensis needles was one of the lowest values reported in the literature for woody species, and suggests that all pine trees in the chronosequence are unambiguously limited by low N availability. Our results show that these N-limited pine forests retained N more efficiently than P 4 years after a wildfire; however, leaf N recovery is slower than P recovery, suggesting that the mechanisms responsible for pine N limitation operate continuously in these forests.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the La Palma Government for enabling access and providing logistic support for the sampling expeditions, and Javier Méndez, Gustavo Morales, Felix Medina, Alfredo Bermúdez, Rocío Paramá, Rosana Estévez, and Jesús Rodríguez for their valuable help with field sampling and laboratory analysis. Special thanks are due to Felisa Covelo for her continuous and unconditional help. This work was financed by the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología of the Spanish Government (REN 2003-08620-C0201; CGL 2006-13665-C02-01). The experiments comply with the current laws of the country in which they were performed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Sistemas Físicos, Químicos y Naturales, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Ctra. de Utrera km. 1, 41013, Sevilla, Spain

    Jorge Durán, Alexandra Rodríguez & Antonio Gallardo

  2. Departamento de Ecología, Universidad de La Laguna, 38206, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain

    José María Fernández-Palacios

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  1. Jorge Durán
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  2. Alexandra Rodríguez
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  3. José María Fernández-Palacios
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  4. Antonio Gallardo
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Correspondence to Jorge Durán.

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Responsible editor: Martin Weih.

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Durán, J., Rodríguez, A., Fernández-Palacios, J.M. et al. Changes in leaf nutrient traits in a wildfire chronosequence. Plant Soil 331, 69–77 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-009-0232-6

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