Responses of labile soil organic carbon and nitrogen pools to long-term prescribed burning regimes in a wet sclerophyll forest of southeast Queensland, Australia

Bushra Muqaddas; Tom Lewis; Maryam Esfandbod; Chengrong Chen

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.07.416

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Responses of labile soil organic carbon and nitrogen pools to long-term prescribed burning regimes in a wet sclerophyll forest of southeast Queensland, Australia

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Responses of labile soil organic carbon and nitrogen pools to long-term prescribed burning regimes in a wet sclerophyll forest of southeast Queensland, Australia

Bushra Muqaddas, Tom Lewis, Maryam Esfandbod and Chengrong Chen

Science of the Total Environment, Vol.647, pp.110-120

2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.07.416

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Abstract

prescribed fire regimes

dissolved organic carbon (C) and nitrogen (N)

hot water extractable organic C and N

density fractions

light fraction

wet sclerophyll forest

Soil labile organic carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) pools play a central role in nutrient cycling, while fire is a key driver of biogeochemical cycle, shaping ecosystem structure and functioning. However, how soil labile organic C and N responds to the long-term repeated prescribed fire is largely unknown. In this study, a prescribed fire field experiment in a wet sclerophyll forest established in 1972 in southeast Queensland was used to evaluate the long-term impacts of different fire frequency regimes on labile organic C and N measured by different extraction methods. The fire frequency regimes included long unburnt (NB), burnt every two years (2yrB) and burnt every four years (4yrB). Results revealed that the 2yrB treatment had significantly lower C and N concentrations in hot water and K2SO4 extracts and in density fractions (LFD<2.3 and HFD>1.6) compared with the NB treatment. Concentrations of carbohydrate-C in hot water extracts and acid soluble and insoluble organic matter-C in cold-water extracts followed a similar trend. The maximum reduction was observed for carbohydrate C (72%) and the hot water extractable N (54%) in the 2yrB treatment compared with the NB treatment, showing these parameters are most sensitive indicators. However, there was no significant difference in most of the above parameters between the 4yrB and the NB treatments, indicating that less frequent fire (4yrB) allows the ecosystem to have sufficient time to recover from fire disturbance and may be a sustainable practice for fire management in this wet sclerophyll forest ecosystem.

Details

Title: Responses of labile soil organic carbon and nitrogen pools to long-term prescribed burning regimes in a wet sclerophyll forest of southeast Queensland, Australia
Authors: Bushra Muqaddas (Author) - Griffith University
Tom Lewis (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering
Maryam Esfandbod (Author) - Griffith University
Chengrong Chen (Author) - Griffith University
Publication details: Science of the Total Environment, Vol.647, pp.110-120
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date published: 2019
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.07.416
ISSN: 0048-9697
Organisation Unit: University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; Forest Research Institute
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99450779802621
Output Type: Journal article

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