Short- and long-term effects of fire on soil properties in a Dahurian larch forest in Great Xing' an Mountains

Wildfire is an important component in boreal forest ecosystems, and accelerates biogeochemical processes of forest ecosystems. In this study, we investigated the short-term and long-term effects of wildfire on soil physicochemical and microbial indicators in boreal Dahurian larch forests that were burned respectively in 2010 and 2000 at the Huzhong Natural Reserve in the Great Xing' an Mountains. Our results showed that wildfire significantly decreased soil moisture, organic matter depth, soil C/N and microbial biomass in the plots burning in 2010, but significantly increased soil pH, ammonium and nitrate contents, compared with the control plots. However, 11 years after the wildfire, no significant differences were observed in these soil properties between burned and control plots except for soil microbial biomass, which was significantly lower than the control. This suggests that post-fire soil physicochemical properties can rapidly recover to prefire levels, but the effect of fire on soil microbial biomass may last for a long time. This research provided a basis for managing the nutrients of post-fire Dahurian larch forests.