Nutrient concentrations in narrow-leaved snow tussock (Chionochloa rigida) after spring burning

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Abstract
The mean concentration of total major nutrients increased by 82 percent in the leaf tissue, changed little in the stem tissue, and decreased by 62 percent in the root tissue of snow tussocks (Chionochloa) in the year after spring burning. This resulted from an immediate reallocation of nutrients, principally nitrogen and potassium, from root to leaf tissue, and from increased nutrient availability resulting from modified soil conditions. By the eighth year after fire nutrient concentrations were again equivalent to unburnt plants in leaf tissue, but had declined significantly in stem tissue. Nutrient concentrations remained significantly depressed in root tissue throughout the 13 years after fire. It is suggested that a rapid depletion of nutrients after fire in soils of naturally low fertility could subsequently limit the amount of nutrient uptake from the soil for at least 13 years after a single fire, and account for the decline in leaf growth and the depression of flowering after the second year