@article {BF-2787,
	title = {Does low-intensity surface fire increase water- and nutrient-availability to overstorey Eucalyptus gomphocephala?},
	journal = {Plant and Soil},
	year = {2011},
	abstract = {The objective of this study was to investigate how the management practices of prescribed fire
and understorey vegetation removal affect water and nutrient relations of old, yet prematurely declining
Eucalyptus gomphocephala. Long unburnt sites were established in Yalgorup National Park, Western
Australia, adjacent to frequently burnt state forest sites. Trees were allocated to vegetation clearing,
prescribed fire or no prescribed fire treatments.

Prescribed fire was achieved in only one long unburnt national park site so that the results were
pseudoreplicated but analysed accordingly. Soil chemistry, plant nutrient availability and tree foliar
carbon and nitrogen isotope ratio and nutrient concentration were investigated. No effects of vegetation clearing were found. Prescribed fire sites were associated with sky exposure and bare ground whereas no prescribed fire sites were associated with shrub and litter cover and litter depth. Foliar carbon isotope ratios were significantly more negative in prescribed fire, relative to no prescribed fire, treatments on long unburnt sites. Soil exchangeable Zn and Mn and plant available (estimated by charged resin beads) Mg were higher on prescribed fire, relative to no prescribed fire, long unburnt sites. Seedling bioassays indicated elevated P and Cu availability on prescribed fire, relative to no prescribed fire, treatments. In overstorey E. gomphocephala, foliar N levels were elevated (but not to excessive levels), and there was a trend toward elevated foliar Mn, in prescribed fire relative to no prescribed fire treatments on long unburnt sites. In the context of our large-scale pseudoreplicated case study, prescribed fire provided a pulse of water and N, (with some indications towards provision of elevated Mn, Cu and Mg) availability to E. gomphocephala in decline on sites with a history of a long absence of fire that may in part underpin observations of elevated tree health on sites that have a history of relatively frequent fire.
},
	doi = {10.1007/s11104-011-0862-3},
	author = {Close, DC and Davidson, N. J. and Swanborough, Perry W. and Corkrey, Ross}
}
@article {BF-2588,
	title = {Fire history and understorey vegetation: Water and nutrient relations of Eucalyptus gomphocephala and E. delegatensis overstorey trees},
	journal = {Forest Ecology and Management},
	year = {2011},
	month = {4/2011},
	abstract = {Fire regimes in temperate forests and woodlands have changed significantly in Australia since European settlement. We hypothesised that an absence of fire leads to the increased development of woody understorey/midstorey and that this may be correlated with decreased water and/or nutrient availability in overstorey temperate eucalypts currently declining in health. Sites with a history of being long unburnt or recently (and frequently in the case of Eucalyptus gomphocephala woodland) burnt (relative to median fire intervals for the vegetation type) were established in E. gomphocephala woodland in Western Australia and in Eucalyptus delegatensis forest in Tasmania. In long unburnt sites in both E. gomphocephala woodland and E. delegatensis forest, there was greater percent cover of understorey/midstorey and eucalypts had higher water use efficiency, indicative of greater soil water limitation, as estimated by foliar carbon isotope ratios. In E. gomphocephala woodland foliar Cu and Zn were significantly lower in eucalypts of long unburnt, relative to frequently burnt, sites. In E. gomphocephala woodland, understorey/midstorey (shrub) cover was positively correlated, and foliar copper and zinc levels were negatively correlated to health of overstorey trees. In E. delegatensis forest foliar phosphorus (P) was significantly lower in eucalypts of long unburnt, relative to recently burnt, sites. In E. delegatensis forest moss cover was positively correlated and foliar P was negatively correlated to health of overstorey trees. The understorey/midstorey that develops in the long absence of fire may alter ecological processes that lead to less favourable water- and nutrient-relations in E. gomphocephala woodland and E. delegatensis forest that are associated with decline in crown health. However this study does not definitively show a link between understorey/midstorey vegetation and overstorey tree water- and nutrient-relations. This link will be investigated in future research},
	doi = {10.1016/j.foreco.2011.03.025},
	author = {Close, DC and Davidson, N. J. and Swanborough, Perry W.}
}
