Effect of Winter fire on primary productivity and nutrient concentration of a dry tropical savanna

Burning increased the mean annual canopy and belowground biomass of a dry tropical savanna by 40% and 12%, respectively, while littermass was reduced by 85% in comparison to control savanna. Mean annual aboveground and belowground net primary production were 471 and 631 g m-3 in control, and 584 and 688 g m-2 in burned savanna, respectively. Fire caused an increase in mean aboveground net production of 24% and in belowground net production of 9%. Concentration of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus in vegetation of unburned plots ranged between 34.01-38.59%, 0.85-1.53% and 0.04-0.11% and in soil from 0.95-1%, 0.011-0.13% and 0.017-0.02@, respectively. Fire increased the mean concentrations of N and P by 16% and 42% in vegetation and 18.18% and 17.65% in soil, respectively thus winter fire can be an important tool for the management of dry tropical savanna with respect to biomass production and nutritive quality