Gains and losses in soil nutrients associated with harvesting and burning eucalypt rainforest

Changes in heated and autoclaved forest soils of S.E. Australia. I. Carbon and nitrogen

“…Fires affect soil properties relevant to plant nutrition in a number of ways and thus have been extensively studied in Australia. Nutrients and C are lost by volatilisation (Ellis & Graley 1983;Raison et al 1985); ash produced during fire affects soil solution chemistry and exchangeable cations ; ; Tomkins et al 1991;Khanna et al 1994); N is mineralised (Weston & Attiwill 1990;Polglase et al 1992a;Bauhus et al 1993), and soil P is transformed (Adams 1992;Polglase et al 1992b).…”

Nutrient stocks in Tasmanian vegetation and approximate losses due to fire

“…Adams & Attiwill (1988) proposed that replacement of all nutrients lost from northeastern forests as a result of logging and regeneration fires was conservatively estimated to occur within 80-100 years from precipitation and weathering. Ellis & Graley (1983) proposed that replacement could be expected within 15-20 years in the southern forests. The latter estimate appears most unlikely, in view of the probable erosion and leaching losses in this wetter environment.…”

Soil or fire: what causes treeless sedgelands in Tasmanian wet forests?

“…Furthermore, the soil nutrient capital of forests and sedgeland is reduced by fire through volatilisation and transport of ash (Harwood and Jackson 1975;Bowman and Jackson 1981), soil erosion (Wilson 1999;di Folco and Kirkpatrick 2013) and leaching (Bowman and Jackson 1981;Ellis and Graley 1983;Jackson 2000;Fletcher et al 2014a), and possibly clay eluviation (McIntosh et al 2005). These impacts are most pronounced on infertile, clay-deficient lithologies, such as quartzite, with much more limited effects on clay-rich soils such as those that develop on dolerite (Ellis and Graley 1983;Jackson 2000). Cyclic salts are an important nutrient input that can rapidly replace nutrients lost as a result of intense forest fires (Ellis and Graley 1983) and, given sufficient time, increase organic soil nutrient capital (Jackson 2000).…”

“…These impacts are most pronounced on infertile, clay-deficient lithologies, such as quartzite, with much more limited effects on clay-rich soils such as those that develop on dolerite (Ellis and Graley 1983;Jackson 2000). Cyclic salts are an important nutrient input that can rapidly replace nutrients lost as a result of intense forest fires (Ellis and Graley 1983) and, given sufficient time, increase organic soil nutrient capital (Jackson 2000). However, because of changes to soil physical characteristics, especially waterlogging and paludification, the absence of fire may not necessarily create soils suitable for forest growth (Fletcher et al 2014b).…”