Effects of fire and three fire-fighting chemicals on main soil properties, plant nutrient content and vegetation growth and cover after 10 years.

The study addresses a knowledge-gap in the long-term ecological consequences of fire and fire-fighting chemicals. Ten years after a prescribed fire and the application of three fire-fighting chemicals, their effects on the soil-plant system were evaluated. Five treatments were established: unburnt soils (US) and burnt soils treated with water alone (BS), foaming agent (BS+Fo), Firesorb (BS+Fi) and ammonium polyphosphate (BS+Ap). Soils (0-2 cm depth) and foliar material of shrubs (Erica umbellata, Pterospartum tridentatum and Ulex micranthus) and trees (Pinus pinaster) were analysed for total N, δ(15)N, and soil-available and plant total macronutrients and trace elements. Soil pH, NH4(+)-N and NO3(-)-N; pine basal diameter and height; and shrub cover and height were also measured. Compared with US plots, burnt soils had less nitrates and more Mo. Although differences were not always significant, BS+Ap had the highest levels of soil available P, Na and Al. Plants from BS+Ap plots had higher values of δ(15)N (P. pinaster and E. umbellata), P (all species), Na (P. tridentatum and U. micranthus) and Mg (E. umbellata and P. tridentatum) than other treatments; while K in plants from BS+Ap plots was the highest among treatments for P. pinaster and the lowest for the shrubs. Pines in US plots were higher and wider than in burnt treatments, except for BS+Ap, where the tallest and widest trees were found, although half of them were either dead (the second highest mortality after BS+Fi) or had a distorted trunk. BS+Ap was the treatment with strongest effects on plants, showing E. umbellata the lowest coverage and height, P. tridentatum the highest coverage, U. micranthus one of the lowest coverages and being the only treatment where Genista triacanthos was absent. Consequently, it is concluded that both fire and ammonium polyphosphate application had significant effects on the soil-plant system after 10 years.

An assessment of the chemical composition of precipitation and throughfall in rural-industrial gradient in wet subtropics (southern Brazil).

The chemical composition of bulk precipitation and throughfall were analyzed, during a 1-year period (2002), in rural-urban-industry gradients with similar forest cover (Eucalyptus spp.) in southern Brazil (Rio Grande and Porto Alegre cities). Values of pH varied from 5.0-5.1 in rural to 5.4-6.1 in industrial sites, and were intermediate in urban sites. The major ions in bulk precipitation were Na+, Cl-, NH+(4), NO-(3), and PO(3-)(4), and concentrations increased in urban and industrial sites. Principal component analysis identified the local main anthropogenic sources. Estimated annual amounts of dry deposition were generally greater in both industrial and urban sites than in rural sites. Areas close to industrial activity showed greater S and N total deposition (10.4-10.9 and 20.2-30.6 kg/ha, respectively) than in urban (3.4-7.3 and 14.6-24.1 kg/ha) and in rural (1.7-2.6 and 8.9-12.1 kg/ha) sites. Annual deposition of Ca and P varied from 0.6 and 3.0 kg/ha in rural to 45.4 and 32.4 kg/ha in industrial sites, maximum values being observed closed to the phosphate fertilizer plant of Rio Grande. Deposition in urban and industrial sites may be balanced by the alkaline cations, as bulk precipitation pH varied from 5.4 to 6.1, and was greater than in rural sites (5.0-5.1).