Journal
PLANT AND SOIL
Volume 311, Issue 1-2, Pages 87-96Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s11104-008-9660-y
Keywords
cerrado; fire; savanna; soil-vegetation relationships
Categories
Funding
- CNPq
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Fire is an important ecological factor that structures savannas, such as the cerrado, by selecting plant species and altering soil nutrient content. In Emas National Park, central Brazil, we compared soils under three different fire regimes and their relationship to the cerrado species they support. We collected 25 soil and vegetation samples at each site. We found differences in soil characteristics (p < 0.05), with fertility and fire frequency positively related: in the annually burned site we found higher values of organic matter, nitrogen, and clay, whereas in the protected site we detected lower values of pH and higher values of aluminum. We also observed differences in plant community structure, with distinct floristic compositions in each site. Floristic composition was more related to sand proportion (intra-set correlation=0.834). Different fire frequencies increase environmental heterogeneity and beta diversity in the Brazilian cerrado.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available