RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article T1 Long-term decrease of organic and inorganic nitrogen concentrations due to pine forest wildfire A1 Durán, Jorge A1 Rodríguez, Alexandra A1 Fernández-Palacios, José María A1 Gallardo, Antonio K1 dissolved organic nitrogen K1 labile nitrogen K1 microbial biomass K1 mineral nitrogen K1 Pinus canariensis K1 fire K1 nitrógeno orgánico disuelto K1 nitrógeno lábil K1 biomasa microbiana K1 nitrógeno mineral K1 fuego AB Growing concerns about fires and the increase of fire frequency and severity due to climate changehave stimulated a large number of scientific papers about fire ecology. Most researchers have focusedon the short-term effects of fire, and the knowledge about the long-term consequences of fires onecosystem nutrient dynamics is still scarce.Our aim was to improve the existing knowledge about the long-term effects of wildfires on forestlabileN concentrations. We hypothesized that fires may cause an initial decline in organic and inorganicN availability, and in the amount of microbial biomass-N; this should be followed by therecovery of pre-fire N concentrations on a long-term basis. We selected a fire chronosequence inPinus canariensis forests on La Palma Island (Canary Islands, Spain). These forests are under lowanthropogenic atmospheric deposition, and forest management is completely lacking; wildfires aretherefore the only significant disturbance. Soil samples were collected during the winter and springat 22 burned and unburned plots.Fire produced a significant decrease in microbial biomass N, mineral N and dissolved organic N.Almost 20 y after fire, pre-fire levels of N concentrations had not recovered.These results demonstrate that P. canariensis forest soils have a lower resilience against fire thanexpected. The magnitude of these observed changes suggests that pine forest wildfires may inducelong-term (2 decades) changes in soil and in plant primary production. PB Springer Verlag YR 2010 FD 2010 LK http://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/18186 UL http://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/18186 LA en NO Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología DS Repositorio institucional de la Universidad de La Laguna RD 20-abr-2024