Effect of winter fire on primary productivity and nutrient concentration of a dry tropical savanna

✍ Scribed by Singh, R. S.

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag
• Year: 1993
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 689 KB
• Volume: 106
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1573-5052
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00044858

✦ Synopsis

Burning increased the mean annual canopy and belowground biomass of a dry tropical savanna by 40 % and 12~o, respectively, while littermass was reduced by 85~o in comparison to control savanna. Mean annual aboveground and belowground net primary production were 471 and 631 g m -2 in control, and 584 and 688 g m-2 in burned savanna, respectively. Fire caused an increase in mean aboveground net production of 24 ~o and in belowground net production of 9 %.

Concentration of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus in vegetation of unburned plots ranged between 34.01-38.59~o, 0.85-1.53% and 0.04-0.11% and in soil from 0.95-1~o, 0.011-0.13~o and 0.017-0.02~o, respectively. Fire increased the mean concentrations of N and P by 16% and 42~o in vegetation and 18.18% and 17.65% in soil, respectively. Thus winter fire can be an important tool for the management of dry tropical savanna with respect to biomass production and nutritive quality.