Fire alters the availability of soil nutrients and accelerates growth of Eucalyptus grandis in Zambia

Abstract

Fire has been used to prepare land during tree plantation establishment for many years but uncertainty about how ecosystems respond to prescribed burning makes it difficult to predict the effects of fire on soil nutrients. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of burning accumulated forest residues (slash) on soil chemical properties and how trees respond. We analyzed 40 burned and unburned sites and compared growth of Eucalyptus grandis W. Hill ex Maiden between sites. Soil pH increased by 39% after fire, suggesting reduced soil acidity and increased liming. Total nitrogen increased by 100%; other nutrients (Ca 2? , Mg 2? and K ?) also increased. Increase in nutrients had a significant effect on the growth of E. grandis; larger and taller trees were associated more with burned than unburned sites. This study provides evidence that burning accumulated slash during land preparation prior to plantation establishment alters soil nutrient status and enhances the growth of E. grandis.

Oil palm ‘slash-and-burn’ practice increases post-fire greenhouse gas emissions and nutrient concentrations in burnt regions of an agricultural tropical peatland

“…The increase in pH after fire has been widely reported in different soil environments (Chungu et al, 2019;Heydari et al, 2017;Kennard and Gholz, 2001;Scharenbroch et al, 2012;Zaccone et al, 2014), that also holds true for highly acidic tropical peatlands where pH was almost twice as high in the burnt region compared to non-burnt region (Fig 4e). This increase may be directly related to the addition of ash from burning (Bang-Andreasen et al, 2017;Zaccone et al, 2014), as shown by the significant increase only in the top cm surface layers.…”

Conservation agriculture-related practices contribute to maize (Zea mays L.) yield and soil improvement in Central Malawi

“…Soil health is deemed unproductive for crop production if the soil pH reaches ≤5.5 ( Karlen et al., 2003 ; Munthali, 2007 ; Njoloma et al., 2016 ). Low soil pH in FP could be due to unsystematic burning ( Chungu et al., 2019 ). pH increases significantly only if burning occurs at high temperatures to achieve complete combustion of vegetative residues ( Arocena and Opio, 2003 ).…”

“…The non-replenishment of organic materials would also be responsible for the low pH in the FP since less alkaline cations could be released during burning ( Santana et al., 2018 ). There is a positive correlation between pH and SOM ( Chungu et al., 2019 ); therefore, with the decreasing SOM in FP, pH would not be expected to increase even after occasional burning. Since all the treatments got the same application rates of inorganic fertilizers, the improved yield in CARP treatments in the present study may be attributed to the improved soil fertility and possibly stable soil moisture conditions due to residue use and intercropping.…”

Soil Biological Responses under Different Vegetation Types in Mediterranean Area

“…Although soil microbial biomasses slightly varied among P, H, and BL soils, the microbial activities significantly varied, suggesting that different plant types cause the diversification and specialization of soil microbial communities. Thus, the plants modified some soil abiotic properties, which, in turn, were responsible for the different microbial activities [ 71 , 72 ], as highlighted by the numerous correlations found.…”