Forest fires are known to significantly alter soil nutrient availability. The study investigated the post-fire nutrient availability in the sub-tropical forest ecosystem of Koubru Hills, Manipur (North-East India). The forested ecosystem was disturbed by forest wildfire in January 2010.To study the fire effect, collection of burned and unburned soil samples from three soil depths (0-5, 5-10 and 10-15 cm) was started approximately three months after the fire event and continued at monthly intervals for a period of one year. The collected soil samples were analyzed for soil organic carbon (SOC), NH -N, Bray-extractable phosphorus, available potassium and micronutrients such as Fe, Cu, Mn and Zn.

Wildfire is the most dominant natural large scale disturbance factor in many of the world's ecosysytems including forests. A 115-year old mixed forest in Manipur (North-East India) was disturbed by wildfire in January 2010. The ground vegetation and the litter layer were completely consumed during the fire. Soil microarthropods that depend on those resources for food are therefore expected to be sensitive to fire. The study investigated the post-fire soil microarthropod abundance in this disturbed forest ecosystem. Approximately three months after the fire event, soil microarthropod sampling from the burned and unburned areas was started at monthly interval and continued for a period of 1 year. The soil animals were sampled from three soil depths (0-5, 5-10and 10-15 cm) using soil corers 5 cm diameter × 5 cm high). Microarthropods were then extracted from the soil corers following the Tullgren funnel extraction technique. This was followed by the assessment of microarthropods extracted from the burned and unburned soils. For statistical analysis, repeated measures ANOVA was used to detect the variation in soil microarthropod abundance between the burned unburned areas. The analysis showed that wildfire had a significant effect on soil microarthropod abundance which was found to be lower in the burned area compared to the adjacent unburned area.