Summary
This field study examined how prescribed fire reshapes soil microbial communities in a northern California mixed conifer forest, sampling two burned and two control plots over 17 months. Using amplicon sequencing, the authors found that whilst most microbial community assembly followed neutral processes (drift and dispersal), a distinct sub-community of burn-associated taxa assembled through deterministic (non-neutral) processes. The identification of 15 pyrophilous taxa provides a foundation for mechanistically understanding how soil microorganisms respond to fire as a classical disturbance regime.
UK applicability
Findings are relevant to UK woodland management and prescribed burning practices, particularly for mixed conifer plantations and native forests where fire resilience is increasingly considered. However, direct applicability may be limited by differences in forest composition, climate, soil type, and fire regime between northern California and the United Kingdom.
Key measures
Fungal and bacterial amplicon sequence variants (ASVs), differential abundance fold-changes, community composition shifts, neutral assembly modelling, pyrophilous taxon identification
Outcomes reported
The study measured changes in soil fungal and bacterial community structure following prescribed fire using amplicon sequencing over 17 months. It identified 15 pyrophilous (fire-loving) taxa that showed significant positive response to prescribed burns and characterised the assembly mechanisms of burn-associated microbial sub-communities.
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