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Prescribed burning effects on carbon and nutrient cycling processes in peatlands of Greater Khingan Mountains, Northeast China.

Shengzhen Ji,Guangxin Li,Jinxin Cong,Huifeng Xu,Dongxue Han,Chuanyu Gao

Published 2025 in Science of the Total Environment

ABSTRACT

Peatlands are significant global carbon sinks; however, their carbon storage functions are vulnerable to human activities. In the Greater Khingan Mountains of Northeast China, where forest and peatland ecosystems are interspersed extensively, prescribed burning is conducted annually on peatlands to prevent major forest fires. To investigate the effect of prescribed burning on carbon and nutrient cycling processes in peatlands, we conducted a three-year experiment in the Greater Khingan Mountains. In the three years following burning, the soil organic carbon (SOC) content in burn and ash removal plots increased by 71.2 ± 24.4 g/kg, 120.4 ± 55.2 g/kg, and 59.5 ± 21.7 g/kg compared with that in unburned plots. The carbohydrate content in the burn and ash removal plots in the first and second-year of burn was significantly lower by 12.8 ± 9.6 % and 8.6 ± 6.8 %, respectively, compared with that in the unburned plots. Piecewise structural equation modeling for SOC showed that plant biomass directly affected SOC, explaining 44.2 % of the variation, whereas fire-produced ash affected the plant nitrogen-phosphorus ratio, accounting for 38.3 % of the variation. Our results indicated that prescribed burning, that consumes litter promotes plant growth and increases the accumulation of surface SOC. The additional ash produced by prescribed burning enhanced the SOC stability in the peatlands. The postfire increase in plant biomass directly enhanced carbon storage in the peatlands, and the fire-produced ash promoted the shift of peatlands from N to P limitation.

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