Fire and other variables as determinants of forest/fynbos boundaries in the Cape Province
1990
Manders, P. T.
Forests in the southwestern Cape are restricted to sheltered stream banks and patches of rock scree owing to protection from recurrent fire and the more favourable soil moisture conditions in these habitats. The effects of a prescribed burn on 17 March 1987 on the forest / fynbos boundaries in the Swartboskloof catchment are described. No evidence of erosion of the forest edge was recorded, although this could be ascribed to the low intensity of the fire. Soil properties, primarily pH and aluminium and available phosphorus levels, differed markedly between forest and fynbos. It is argued, however, that this is a result, not a cause of vegetation change. Light extinction levels and soil moisture availability after the fire were lower in the fynbos than in the forest, and are considered to preclude incursions of forest species into fynbos of a low post‐fire age.
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