The short-term responses of alpine meadow to fire disturbance in Northwest Sichuan

The plant community characteristics and soil environment of shrub meadow in Daofu which suffered fire were investigated in September 2011. The results showed that fire had significant negative effects on alpine meadow plant community (P0.05). The coverage, height, number, base circumference and biomass of shrub significantly decreased (P0.05). The coverage, height and biomass of herbaceous plant community also significantly decreased (P0.05). There were significant inhibition effects (P0.05) on the growth of aboveground plant community. However, fire increased alpine meadow herbaceous plant community richness and diversity. In addition, fire was beneficial to the root growth of herbaceous plant. Soil microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen, soil bulk density and available phosphorus in 10-20 cm layer significantly increased (P0.05), while the soil pH and total potassium significantly decreased (P0.05).