Savannah

Soil Chemistry as Affected by First-time Prescribed Burning of a Grassland restoration on a Coastal Plain Ultisol
Sherman, Leslie A.; Brye, Kristofor R.; Gill, Douglas E.; Koenig, Kristin A.
Soil Science. 170(11):913-927, November 2005.

Abstract:

Black carbon in a temperate mixed-grass savanna
X. Daia, T.W. Boutton a,*, B. Glaser b, R.J. Ansley c, W. Zech b
Soil Biology & Biochemistry 37 (2005) 1879–1881

Abstract
Black carbon (BC) or charcoal is thought to represent an important component of the carbon cycle, but has seldom been quantified in soils. We quantified soil BC in a temperate mixed-grass savanna in the southern Great Plains using benzenecarboxylic acids as molecular markers for BC. Soils were collected from four fire treatments (repeated summer fires in 1992 and 1994; repeated winter fires in 1991, 1993 and 1995;

Building a black soil
C.I. Czimczik (1) and C.A. Masiello (2)

ABSTRACT
Black carbon (BC) is a major fraction (up to 35%, depending on methods used) of
soil organic carbon (SOC) in some of the most fertile and extensively cropped soils
of the world (Mollisols, Andisols, Terra Preta de Indio). Although BC is produced via
biomass burning in many ecosystems, it accumulates as a component of SOC in only
a few. Soils enriched in BC are not necessarily found in areas with the highest fire frequencies (savannah) or with the largest black carbon production (woody vegetation).