Inter-Month Nutrients Dynamic and Plant Growth in Calamagrostis angustifolia Community and Soil after Different Burning Seasons

Abstract

Presently, as human activity and climate warming gradually increase, straw burning leads to more accidental burning in neighbouring wetlands, which threatens wetland carbon stores. Plants are important carbon fixers in wetlands, converting carbon dioxide to biomass through photosynthesis and releasing carbon into the soil as plants die off. Nitrogen and phosphorus limitation in wetlands is a key factor affecting plant growth, and different burning seasons have different effects on mitigating this limitation. To further elucidate the effects of nitrogen and phosphorus distribution on wetland inter-month nutrient dynamics after different burning seasons, we selected a Calamagrostis angustifolia wetland in the Sanjiang Plain that was burned in spring and autumn, respectively, and conducted a monthly survey from May to September. We found that the leaf nitrogen content in September at spring burning sites was 3.59 ± 2.69 g/kg, which was significantly lower than that in July, while the difference at the unburned sites was only 0.60 ± 3.72 g/kg, and after the autumn burning, soil nitrogen and phosphorus contents remained higher than at the unburned sites in August, being 0.55 ± 1.74 g/kg and 0.06 ± 0.12 g/kg, respectively. Our results indicate that spring burning immediately increased the nitrogen and phosphorus contents in soil and plants but that these effects only lasted for a short time, until June. In comparison, autumn burning had a long-term effect on soil nitrogen and phosphorus levels and significantly increased the aboveground biomass. Thus, we recommend that conducting autumn burning before the commencement of agricultural burning not only reduces combustible accumulation to prevent fires but also promotes nitrogen and phosphorus cycling in wetlands, and the increase in plant biomass after autumn burning also enhances the carbon fixation capacity of the wetland.