Abstract
This study was conducted on the George Brockman Ranch, located near Sonora, Texas. The study area consisted of four 40 ha paddocks, two of which were burned with a headfire on March 1, 1977, and two paddocks which served as controls. Within each of the four paddocks, six examples of four different plant communities were evaluated. These communities represented areas dominated by common curlymesquite, hairy tridens, threeawn and live oak mottes. All communities generally exhibited higher soil temperature at the 1 cm depth in the burn as compared to the control. Differences between the burn and control diminished with increasing depth. The burn had lower soil moisture than the control at all sample dates for all plant communities. No significant differences were found between the burn and control for percent soil organic matter for any of the plant communities except the live oak community, which had significantly less soil organic matter in the burn. Burning generally decreased litter biomass at all sample dates in the threeawn, hairy tridens and curlymesquite communities, with little or no effect in the live oak community. Total standing crop and green standing crop was less in the burn as compared to the control at all sample dates for the curlymesquite, live oak and threeawn communities. Both total and green standing crop in the control hairy tridens community exceeded the burn until June, after which there was little difference between the burn and control. Percent live of common curlymesquite, Texas wintergrass, hairy tridens, threeawn, red grama and sedge was generally higher in the burn at all sample dates as compared to the control. Utilization for all plant communities in the burn and control was characterized by extreme date-to-date and plot-to-plot variability, resulting in little difference between the burn and control...
McGinty, William Allan (1979). Soil, vegetation and livestock responses following spring burning of Edwards Plateau rangeland. Texas A&M University. Texas A&M University. Libraries. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /DISSERTATIONS -718713.