Extended Data Fig. 3: Fire frequency is important in sites but does not explain the relative changes in soil carbon across sites.
From: Soil carbon storage capacity of drylands under altered fire regimes
Fire frequency is not important at explaining the relative changes in soil carbon (C) across sites but it is important within sites. a) Each point is a site, displaying the percent difference in mineral soil C concentrations in the high frequency vs. unburned plots. b-c) comparisons using the intermediate fire frequency treatments on 34 sites. These 36 sites have intermediate frequencies of burning (generally relative to what is believed to be the historical or ‘natural’ frequency), allowing us to evaluate the impact of increased burning or decreased burning relative to an intermediate level. b) soil C in the intermediate fire frequency plots vs. fire exclusion plots. c) soil C in the high-frequency plots vs. intermediate fire frequency plots. For both b-c Negative values illustrate lower C concentrations in the higher frequency treatment. Circles in b-c represent the means and error bars are 95% confidence intervals. Sample sizes for b-c: grassland: n=3, woody savannah: n=13, broadleaf forest: n=10, warm needleleaf forest: n=6.
