Australian Rivers Institute and Griffith School of Environment, Griffith University, Nathan, QLD, Australia.
Flathead Lake Biological Station, University of Montana, Polson, MT.
Ecol Lett. 2018 Mar;21(3):335-344. doi: 10.1111/ele.12896. Epub 2018 Jan 4.
The biogeochemical and stoichiometric signature of vegetation fire may influence post-fire ecosystem characteristics and the evolution of plant 'fire traits'. Phosphorus (P), a potentially limiting nutrient in many fire-prone environments, might be particularly important in this context; however, the effects of fire on P cycling often vary widely. We conducted a global-scale meta-analysis using data from 174 soil studies and 39 litter studies, and found that fire led to significantly higher concentrations of soil mineral P as well as significantly lower soil and litter carbon:P and nitrogen:P ratios. These results demonstrate that fire has a P-rich signature in the soil-plant system that varies with vegetation type. Further, they suggest that burning can ease P limitation and decouple the biogeochemical cycling of P, carbon and nitrogen. These effects resemble a transient reversion to an earlier stage of ecosystem development, and likely underpin at least some of fire's impacts on ecosystems and organisms.
植被火灾的生物地球化学和化学计量特征可能会影响火灾后的生态系统特征和植物“火灾特征”的演变。磷（P）是许多易发生火灾环境中潜在的限制养分，在这种情况下可能尤为重要；然而，火灾对磷循环的影响通常差异很大。我们使用来自 174 个土壤研究和 39 个凋落物研究的数据进行了全球范围内的荟萃分析，结果表明火灾导致土壤中矿物磷的浓度显著增加，同时土壤和凋落物中碳：磷和氮：磷的比值显著降低。这些结果表明，火灾在土壤-植物系统中具有富磷特征，且因植被类型而异。此外，它们表明燃烧可以减轻磷的限制，并使磷、碳和氮的生物地球化学循环解耦。这些效应类似于生态系统发展早期阶段的短暂逆转，并且可能至少为火对生态系统和生物体的某些影响提供了基础。
