This study was carried out to estimate the effect of forest fire on herb layer development and chemical properties of soil. The forest fire was in April 2000 in Pinus rigida(softwood) and Robinia pseudoacasia(hardwood) dominant forests at Gaejoksan, D...
This study was carried out to estimate the effect of forest fire on herb layer development and chemical properties of soil. The forest fire was in April 2000 in Pinus rigida(softwood) and Robinia pseudoacasia(hardwood) dominant forests at Gaejoksan, Daejeon. Vegetation study was in the two community and herb layer development study was in July using dominance of Diersson. The coverage of herb layer was higher in the burned area than in the unburned area in the two study communities. There was no different herb layer species number between the burned and unburned areas, but there was different herb layer species number between the two communities. Soil samples were collected at 0-10 and 10-20cm soil depths from the unburned and burned sites after 3 days and 8 months of forest fire. There was no forest floor in burned site, but unburned site has the forest floor of 1.5cm thick. There were no significant differences in soil organic matter, total N, available P, exchangeable K, Ca, Na, and Mg, and CEC, pH in all soil depth, between unburned and burned sites after 3 days of forest fire and between burned site after 3 days and 8 months of forest fire, except in organic matter in 10-20cm soil depth in hardwood sites and in exchangeable Ca in the 10-20cm soil depth, and in Mg in the two soil depths in hardwood sites. It seems to be that forest fire had not changed the chemical soil properties in this study.