Fire and Nutrient Cycling in Temperate Ecosystems

Abstract

Wildfire is an integral component of many temperate ecosystems. The impact of wildfire on the nutrient dynamics of an ecosystem is dependent on the proportion of biomass and nutrients aboveground, which is therefore susceptible to combustion. Mechanisms for postfire nutrient conservation are most strongly developed in nutrient-poor (oligotrophic) ecosystems, in which most of the nutrients are found aboveground, and least well developed in nutrient-rich (eutrophic) ecosystems, whose nutrients are predominantly belowground.