Effects of Prescribed Burn on Pine Rockland Soil Health and Plant Communities within Fiu's Nature Preserve.

EFFECTS OF PRESCRIBED BURN ON PINE ROCKLAND SOIL HEALTH AND PLANT COMMUNITIES WITHIN FIU'S NATURE PRESERVE

Ariel Freidenreich¹, Pushpa Soti², Brittany Harris¹, Eric Betancourt¹, Mariana Santos Reis³, Shagufta Gaffar¹, Krish Jayachandran¹

¹Department of Earth and Environment, Florida International University, Miami, Florida 33199

²Agroecology and Resilient Food Systems, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg, TX 78539

³Federal University of ABC, Santo Andre, SP - Brazil

            Pine Rockland is a dry, upland forest ecosystem which naturally occurs in the South Florida region. This ecosystem previously encompassed most upland areas in Florida but is now considered endangered having been reduced to about 3% of its original extent. Pine rockland is a fire-dependent plant community that relies on burning to maintain its open canopy-like state. The ecosystem is described as a “fire subclimax community” due to the fact that fire is needed to prevent its succession into a more dense type of plant community such as hardwood hammock. Although South Florida slash pine (Pinus elliottii var. densa) is the dominant tree species, South Florida pine rocklands exhibit the highest plant diversity of any habitat found in Florida. Over 400 types of native plants occur within pine rocklands and more than 20% of these are exclusively endemic to Florida. South Florida pine rockland is a critical habitat necessary for the preservation of native species with 50 state listed and 4 federally listed vascular plants. Florida International University has a small patch of pine rockland habitat that has been preserved. It was burned for the first time in March of 2016. This study takes into consideration soil samples 1 week pre burn, 1 week post burn, 4 weeks post burn, and 10 weeks post burn. The soil was analyzed for microbial content, CNP, pH, and OM%. Additionally, plant surveys were conducted as well to determine density and diversity.