1

Research Note RMRS-RN-69. August 2014.

United States Department of Agriculture

Post-Fire Erosion Control Mulches Alter Belowground 

Processes and Nitrate Reductase Activity of a 

Perennial Forb, Heartleaf Arnica (Arnica cordifolia)

Erin M. Berryman, Penelope Morgan, Peter R. Robichaud, 

and Deborah Page-Dumroese

Abstract

Four years post-wildfire, we measured soil and plant properties on hillslopes treated with two different mulches (agricultural wheat straw and wood strands) and a control (unmulched, but burned). 

Soil total N was about 40% higher and microbial respiration of a standard wood substrate was 

nearly twice as high in the mulched plots compared to the unmulched plots. Greater respiration 

was tied to increased substrate moisture underneath mulch compared to bare soil. Nitrate reductase activity of a common forb (Arnica cordifolia) was about 30% higher on the wood strand plots 

than either the wheat straw or the unmulched plots. Mulch applications after wildfire may enhance 

N availability by increasing soil moisture, promoting microbial N mineralization, or by increasing 

biological nitrogen fixation. Because inference is limited for this case study, we call for additional 

replicated experiments investigating effects of mulch treatments on soil carbon and nitrogen cycling 

with links to plant regeneration.

Keywords: soil rehabilitation, restoration, fire effects, respiration, nitrogen

Berryman, Erin M.; Morgan, Penelope; Robichaud, Peter R.; Page-Dumroese, Deborah. 2014. Postfire erosion control mulches alter belowground processes and nitrate reductase activity of a 

perennial forb, heartleaf arnica (Arnica cordifolia). Res. Note RMRS-RN-69. Fort Collins, CO: 

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 10 p.

Forest Rocky Mountain Research Note

Service Research Station RMRS-RN-69 August 2014
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Research Note RMRS-RN-69. August 2014.

Introduction

Following severe wildfire, rehabilitation efforts often focus on reducing soil erosion, protecting downstream water quality, and maintaining soil productivity, particularly where there are ecosystem values at risk (Robichaud 

et al. 2013a). Erosion reduction and water quality objectives can be successfully addressed using erosion control techniques, such as aerially applied mulch (Robichaud et al. 2013b). These treatments also likely affect 

soil nutrient cycling and other belowground processes, such as decomposition, with implications for ecosystem 

recovery, but few studies have examined such non-target effects. Thus, forest managers who develop post-fire 

rehabilitation plans are less informed than they should be to fully consider ecosystem effects of applying mulch 

following a wildfire.

Mulching may have both positive and negative effects on soil nutrient cycling in the context of post-fire plant 

regeneration. Because temperate conifer forests are usually nitrogen (N)-limited (Hunt et al. 1988), regenerating vegetation may benefit from the ephemeral pulse of soil soluble N that often results from wildfire 

(Hart et al. 2005; Rodríguez et al. 2009; Stephan et al. 2012). Surface mulches may increase substrate for N 

mineralization by preventing erosional losses of organic matter or by serving as a substrate itself. In contrast, 

decomposition of added shredded wood or wheat straw mulch can immobilize soil N (Mary et al. 1996; 

Rhoades et al. 2012). These direct effects on N would likely interact with mulch effects on soil properties 

governing organic matter (OM) turnover rates, such as changes in soil moisture. It is difficult to predict the 

net effect of these mechanisms on soil N availability to plants.

To date, no studies have examined nutrient cycling consequences of post-fire mulching in dry, mixed conifer forests (Robichaud et al. 2009). Four years following a wildfire and mulch application in southeastern 

Washington, USA, we tested mulch effects on soil total N and OM, OM turnover rates, and NO3

-

 assimilation 

by a common perennial forb, heartleaf arnica.

Methods

Study Area

Study plots were located within an area burned by the School Fire in July and August 2005 on the Umatilla 

National Forest in the Tucannon River drainage of the Blue Mountains, southeastern Washington, USA (latitude 46.22°, longitude -117.67°). Sites were located in high severity burned areas (>70% tree mortality, >50% 

bare mineral soil exposure; Parsons et al. 2010) on steep (51% to 70%) slopes. Pre-fire overstory vegetation 

was mixed-conifer, dominated by Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb) Franco) and grand fir (Abies grandis (Dougl) Lindl). Four years post-fire, dominant understory vegetation consisted of bluebunch wheatgrass 

(Pseudoroegneria spicata (Pursh) Å. Löve), pinegrass (Calamagrostis rubescens Buckley), and Geyer’s sedge (Carex 

geyeri (Boott)) with many shrubs and forbs (Moy 2010). The dominant soil is an ashy silt loam (Limberjim 

series; ashy over loamy-skeletal, amorphic over isotic, frigid Alfic Udivitrand; NRCS 2013) derived from basalt.

Average annual precipitation from the time period between the wildfire and 1 year following our sampling 

date (2005-2010) was 1458 mm whereas average annual daily maximum and minimum temperatures were 

10.9 and 2.3 °C, respectively (data from nearest weather station, 21 km from study site: Touchet SNOTEL 

1686 station, latitude 46.11° longitude -117.85°, elevation 1681 m). This was slightly wetter than the average 

precipitation of 1434 mm and the same average annual daily maximum and minimum temperatures of 10.1 

and 1.5 °C (1989-2010). Annual precipitation at the SNOTEL site was 1135, 1671, 1285, 1631, 1572 mm 

in the year of the fire (2005) and the subsequent 4 years (2006-2009), respectively.
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Research Note RMRS-RN-69. August 2014.

In August 2005 soon after the fire, two individual but similar northwest-facing hillslopes were selected and 

each hillslope received an aerial application of one of two types of mulch: wheat straw (Triticum aestivum L.) 

and wood strands which were Forest Concepts’ WoodStraw® (Federal Way, WA). As described by Robichaud et 

al. (2013b), wheat straw (C:N ~140) was applied at a rate of 2.2 Mg ha-1 on a steep 65% slope hillslope (NW 

aspect), resulting in an average of 57% ground cover. Wood strands (C:N ~530) were applied on an adjacent 

hillslope (62% slope, NW aspect) at a rate of 4.5 Mg ha-1, resulting in an average of 54% ground cover. High 

burn severity was assessed using the Burned Area Reflectance Classification maps and was confirmed on-site. 

One similarly burned hillslope (65% slope, W aspect) was selected and retained as the study’s control. All 

hillslopes were at similar elevations (1500 m +/- 50 m) and had similar pre-fire vegetation. We report measurements conducted 4 years following treatment, in July and August 2009.

To monitor mulch effects on soil N available for plant uptake, three plots, separated by ~ 20 m to adequately 

capture spatial variation, were selected on each hillslope for collection of plant material for plant N-use assays 

(see Plant N Use below). Locations of plots represented three different vertical sections of the hillslopes, to 

correspond with measurements of plant response and sediment transport from the hillslopes (Robichaud et al. 

2013b; Moy 2010). To monitor mulch impacts on organic matter turnover, microbial respiration was measured on common substrates buried in three subplots per hillslope (see Microbial Respiration below).

Soil Properties

On 1 August 2009, we collected five each of surface mulch and mineral soil samples (0 to 10 cm depth) from 

each plot and composited them into three bulk samples for each hillslope. Samples were dried at 60 °C until 

their weight stabilized (overnight), ground, and analyzed for soil pH on a 2:1 water:soil paste. Soil and mulch 

percent C and N were analyzed with a LECO® Induction Furnace. Soil percent organic matter was determined 

after loss-on-ignition in a 475 °C oven for 6 hr, as recommended by Ball (1964).

Forb N Use

Availability of soil N for plant use was estimated by measuring nitrate (NO3

-

) reductase activity (NRA), which 

measures assimilation of nitrate (Kelker and Filner 1971; Högberg et al. 1986). On 18 August 2009, two separate heartleaf arnica (Arnica cordifolia (Hook.)) plants were sampled in each of three plots per hillslope. This 

particular species was selected because 1) it is a perennial and its nutrient status likely reflects the cumulative 

nutrient availability of the past several years since the fire, 2) it was abundant across most plots following the 

fire (Moy 2010), and 3) it is not an N-fixer and thus would reflect only soil N status. Squares (1 cm2) were cut 

from each of two leaves from each plant; both squares were placed together immediately in a vial containing a 

pH 7.5 buffered solution of potassium nitrate, potassium phosphate and propanol, and reacted for 1 hour in 

the field in darkness at 22 °C (in a portable cooler). After incubation, we stopped the nitrate reduction reaction and developed color of the resulting nitrite by pipetting 0.5 mL of the incubation medium into a 2 mL 

centrifuge vial, to which 0.5 mL of 1% sulfanilamide in 3 N hydrochloric acid HCl (Su - HCl) and 0.5 mL 

of 0.02% N-(1-naphtyl) ethylene diamine dihydrochloride (NED) in distilled, deionized water (DDI) were 

added. We removed leaf samples from the buffer vials and dried them at 70 °C for 24 hours to determine their 

dry weight. The reacted solutions were kept at 4 °C until absorbance was measured at 540 nm using a Beckman 

Coulter Spectrophotometer (Fullerton, CA). We took these measurements within 2 days of collecting samples. 

The blank consisted of the buffer and Su - HCl and DDI water. We computed nitrite concentration from 

absorbance using standard curves; NRA was expressed in terms of nmol nitrite production per hour per gram 

(dry weight) of the leaf samples.
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Research Note RMRS-RN-69. August 2014.

Microbial Respiration

In each subplot, twenty-five loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) wood stakes (free from defect) (2.2 cm x 2.2 cm x 20 

cm) were buried vertically at the mineral soil and mulch interface following the fire just after mulch application (for details on installation method, see Jurgensen et al. 2006). We retrieved buried loblolly pine stakes (n 

= 5 per subplot) on 17 June 2009 for measurement of microbial respiration of a common substrate, which we 

used as a short-term index of soil organic matter turnover. Immediately upon stake retrieval, we weighed the 

stakes in the field, then placed each stake into a modified Li-Cor respiration chamber (LI-6000-09, Lincoln, 

NE) attached to a portable respiration system (LI-6400). We measured respiration rate at ambient CO2 for 

two cycles (each lasting from 0.5 to 1 minutes per stake), recording the average of the two cycles. Stakes were 

dried at 70 °C for about 48 hr until weight stabilized, then weighed to obtain field moisture content as percent 

of dry weight. Stake respiration is expressed as mmol C dry g-1 s-1.

Data Analysis

We determined hillslope differences in soil percent nitrogen (N), substrate moisture, and plant NRA with analysis of variance (ANOVA) using functions aov and lm in R (R Core Development Team, 2011). Differences 

in stake respiration by hillslope (and the covariate of stake moisture) were determined with analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) using functions Anova (package car) and lm in R. Data from each plot (3 per hillslope) were 

treated as independent measurements, acknowledging that true replication and independence was sacrificed 

in favor of the need to work with large-scale mulching treatments (Oksanen 2001). Therefore, these results 

represent the outcome of a case study and caution should be used when extrapolating outside of the treated 

hillslopes studied here. We tested data for assumptions of homoscedasticity and model residual normality using Levene’s test for one-way ANOVA and the Shapiro-Wilks test, respectively. If assumptions were not met, 

then appropriate power transformations were applied until assumptions were met. Means were separated using Tukey’s Honest Significant Difference. Data are reported with mean +/- 1 standard error, and statistical 

significance is reported at α = 0.05.

Results and Discussion

Four years following wildfire and aerial mulch applications to the School Fire, total surface (0 to 10 cm) soil 

N was up to 40% higher underneath wood strands and wheat straw compared to unmulched areas (P < 0.01; 

Table 1). These results may not be fully explained by increased retention of organic matter and sediment by 

mulch treatments that otherwise erode during post-fire rain events. This is because soil loss from the control 

hillslopes was low, with mulch treatment having little impact on soil loss compared to the control (Robichaud 

et al. 2013b). There are two possible causes for increased soil N underneath mulch. One possibility is that 

mulch altered rates of biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) by free-living (asymbiotic) bacteria from the atmosphere into the soil, an important mechanism controlling N availability to plants in natural, N-limited 

forests (Granhall and Lindberg 1980; Jurgensen et al. 1987). In Inland Northwest forests, mineral soil BNF 

by free-living bacteria may account for 0.01 to 0.05 g N m-2, and BNF on woody residue accounts for about 

0.014 g N m-2 whereas additional woody residue, such as that following harvest, may increase that amount 

by two-thirds (Jurgensen et al. 1992). Thus, mulch could provide additional surface area to support higher 

rates of BNF, increasing soil N concentrations. In addition, BNF responds strongly to changes in soil moisture 

(Belnap 2002); higher soil moisture underneath mulched areas may have increased BNF. Second, some of the 

organic N in the original mulch material may have become incorporated into the soil over the 4 years between 

application and sampling. Visual observations suggested that smaller pieces of decomposed straw mulch was 

contained in the surface soil layers that were sampled for C and N, despite efforts to remove intact mulch 

pieces from the soil surface. In areas where wildfire completely consumed the organic litter and duff layers, 
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Research Note RMRS-RN-69. August 2014.

the amount of N added by mulch may have exceeded that lost during the fire. Original aerial mulch application rates for the School Fire are estimated at 2.2 Mg ha-1 for wheat straw and 4.5 Mg ha-1 for wood straw, 

which would have potentially added 1.89 and 0.75 g N m-2 to the soil surface. Comparatively, forest floor N 

loss from burned forests in the Inland Northwest may range from 7.7 to 20.9 g N m-2 (Page-Dumroese and 

Jurgensen 2006), suggesting that organic N delivered via mulch may offset 10 to 25% of wildfire losses from 

the forest floor. However, this effect depends strongly on mulch decomposition and incorporation rates of N 

into the mineral soil. Future work needs to characterize decomposition rates of mulch in order to understand 

the potential contribution of mulch-derived N to mineral soil N. Replacing fire-induced losses of organic N 

via mulch may increase substrate for N mineralization, aiding forest productivity, influencing plant regeneration and ecosystem recovery (Pastor et al. 1984; Chapin and Matson 2011). The fate of mulch-delivered N in 

post-fire ecosystems needs to be fully assessed, together with the erosional mitigation impact of mulching on 

post-fire N retention and potential effects of mulch on BNF inputs.

Mulch cover reduces soil water evaporation and affects soil aggregate stability and porosity, thereby changing nutrient and water relations within the soil profile (Mulumba and Lal 2008). By increasing substrate 

moisture at a time when it would otherwise be low (typical of late summers in the Inland Northwest), surface 

mulch applications create an environment that promotes soil microbial activity, thereby altering long-term soil 

sustainability through the breakdown of OM, nutrient flux control, soil C sequestration, decomposition, mineralization, and immobilization (Nannipieri et al. 2003). Microbial turnover of soil C, measured as respiration 

from buried loblolly pine stakes, strongly co-varied with stake moisture content (Figure 1, Table 2). All stakes 

with moisture contents in the top 50th percentile were harvested from mulched areas rather than from the 

control. Thus, lower moisture in the control plots probably restricted microbial respiration there. Our results 

suggest that by altering the soil environment surrounding microorganisms, surface mulch applications may 

alter soil nutrient transformations with potential feedbacks to vegetation. Future work should resolve mulch 

effects on soil temperature as well as moisture effects in areas with different climate regimes.

Table 1—Average soil characteristics under the two mulch treatments and the unmulched control 4 years 

following wildfire and mulch application on the School Fire, eastern Washington.

Site treatment pH Organic Matter Carbon Nitrogen

---------------------------------Percent----------------------------

Wheat straw 6.6 (0.18)a 7.5 (1.8) 3.07 (0.91) 0.184 (0.036)a

Wood strands 6.4 (0.03) 8.3 (0.4) 3.40 (0.27) 0.224 (0.020)a

Burned control 6.8 (0.13) 5.7 (0.1) 2.39 (0.12) 0.158 (0.011)b

a Values in parentheses are standard error of the mean. Different letters within a single column indicate 

significantly different treatment effects (P < 0.01; n = 3 composite samples).

Figure 1—Stake respiration (mmol C g-1) as 

related to stake moisture content (% w/w) 

at the time of stake retrieval 17 June 2009, 

with least squares linear regression lines 

for each mulched hillslope.

Gravimetric moisture content (%)

Stake respiration (mmol C g−1

) 0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

100 150 200

Control

Wheat straw

Wood strands
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Research Note RMRS-RN-69. August 2014.

The effect of stake moisture on respiration may have varied by hillslope (P = 0.08), suggesting that differences 

in mulch type, such as mulch chemistry, may have been a secondary control over microbial respiration. At 

similar moisture levels, stake respiration underneath wood strands was typically higher than underneath wheat 

straw. Different substrate C:N derived from different mulches may result in divergent decomposer communities at the two hillslopes, which may control decomposition rates (Lauber et al. 2008); however, this effect is 

difficult to separate from existing edaphic or climate differences between the two hillslopes. The possibility 

of mulch type to act as a secondary control over microbial nutrient cycling should be further explored in the 

post-fire environment.

Nitrate reductase activity of heartleaf arnica leaves was significantly higher in the plots mulched with wood 

strands than in those either mulched with the wheat straw or control (P < 0.01, Figure 2). Plant leaf NRA is a 

good indicator of soil nitrate availability in systems where NO3

-

 is the dominant form of N available to plants 

(Högberg et al. 1986; Koba et al. 2003), as is often the case in post-fire ecosystems (DeLuca and Sala 2006; 

Koyama et al. 2010; Smithwick et al. 2005). Our data suggest that wood strand mulch results in elevated 

soil NO3

-

 compared to the control after 4 years. This is supported by findings of elevated inorganic soil N in 

unburned forests 3 years after wood chip application (Miller and Seastedt 2009) and may have resulted from 

increased microbial mineralization or by increased BNF triggered by the higher soil moisture underneath 

mulch (Cassman and Munns 1980). However, it remains unclear why the wheat straw mulch was not associated with higher NRA despite the increased microbial respiration and similar soil moisture as the wood 

strands. More work is needed to understand whether effects of mulch on soil N processing are mediated more 

by abiotic effects (i.e., elevated soil moisture or temperature) or by substrate quality of mulch (i.e., C:N, lignin 

content).

Figure 2—Box-and-whisker plots 

of heartleaf arnica leaf nitrate 

reductase activity collected on 

18 August 2009. Different letters 

indicate significantly different 

treatment effects (P < 0.05). 

Dots represent sample median, 

boxes represent the 25th and 

75th percentiles, and umbrellas 

represent the full data range.

Table 2—ANCOVA results showing effect of stake moisture on stake respiration and no effect of treatment 

on stake respiration neither before (Type II SS) nor after (Type III SS) accounting for treatment effect 

on stake moisture content (g H2O g-1 dry stake). Analyses performed on power-transformed stake 

respiration rates (power = 0.0158).

Source DF Type II SS MS F P value

Treatment 2 0.000247 1.12 0.34

Stake moisture content 1 0.00411 0.00411 37.1 <0.0001

Stake moisture content*Treatment 2 0.000589 2.66 0.084

 

Source DF Type III SS MS F P value

Treatment 2 0.00041 1.85 0.17

Stake moisture content 1 0.00157 0.00157 14.1 <0.001

Stake moisture content*Treatment 2 0.000589 2.66 0.084

Nitrate reductase activity 

(μmol NO2 g<1h<1) 0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

Control Wheat straw Wood strands

b b

a
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Research Note RMRS-RN-69. August 2014.

Both mulch types increased in N during the 4 years they were present on the soil surface (Table 3). Decreased 

mulch C:N is consistent with net N immobilization measured during decomposition of residues in unburned 

forests and agricultural soil (Jensen, 1996; Li et al., 2013; Rhoades et al. 2012). However, there was no 

evidence that N immobilization into mulch reduced nitrate availability to plants, estimated by arnica NRA. 

This result may have been due to the low mulch application rate (compared to forest fuel mitigation and agricultural applications) and the long delay (4 years) in measurement following mulch application. Microbial 

immobilization of N in organic amendments is typically highest at high initial C:N and high C:N substrates 

such as sugar and sawdust are often used to immobilize soil N as part of ecosystem restoration (Paustian et al. 

1992; Perry et al. 2010). Our wheat straw application rate of 2.2 Mg ha-1 is on the lower range of that remaining after agricultural practices (3 to 10 Mg ha-1) shown to immobilize soil N (Mary et al. 1996); however, it 

should be pointed out that, unlike surface aerial mulching, previous research on wheat straw amendments 

involved physical incorporation into the soil, which would have maximized microbial access to C. Thus, the 

low application rates of the wheat straw or the lack of wheat straw incorporation could have minimized N 

immobilization. It is important to better resolve the question of N immobilization following application of 

post-fire mulch, especially the effects of amount and timing of mulch application. Mulch applications may fuel 

the post-fire microbial N sink that Turner et al. (2007) described, with mulch conserving soluble N that would 

otherwise be lost due to post-fire leaching. Further research is needed to quantify short-term N immobilization 

across post-fire mulches of different C:N and application rates.

Wildfire can result in large losses of N from forest ecosystems (Carreira et al. 1994; Turner et al. 2007; Stephan 

et al. 2012), increasing N limitation of primary productivity. In the long term, mulching may sequester N 

through erosion reduction or immobilization, or increase N inputs via biological nitrogen fixation, and lead 

to higher post-fire N pools, ultimately increasing ecosystem N compared to similarly burned but unmulched 

areas. Higher post-fire N has important implications for vegetative recovery and, consequently, for managers 

meeting ecological restoration or C sequestration objectives. Besides serving as a valuable technique for reducing post-fire erosion and runoff, our data suggest that post-fire mulching increases total soil N, soil microbial 

activity and potentially soil N availability to regenerating vegetation. However, these effects are based on a onetime sampling 4 years post fire. Thus, our results only represent net effects on soil N processing that may be 

attributable to a combination of multiple processes, such as increased soil moisture combined with increased 

sediment retention, with an unknown role for N immobilization. There remains a further need for monitoring of soil processes including immediately before and after mulch application and continuing throughout 

at least 5 years, at a temporal resolution high enough to capture the full trajectory of mulch decomposition 

on the soil surface. Ideally, this should be done using a controlled, replicated experiment that includes a nondecomposing mulch to help differentiate the effects of mulch on the physical environment (e.g. in increasing 

soil moisture) from effects as a substrate for soil microorganisms. In addition, these effects are likely to change 

depending on climate, soil and forest type. For example, in areas with coarser-textured soil than those studied 

here, moisture differences with mulch application may not be as pronounced due to the lower water-holding 

capacity of the soil. Thus, future experiments at multiple sites capturing a range of fire-affected ecosystems will 

help us fully assess whether post-fire mulching provides additional ecological benefits or drawbacks both in 

the short- and long-term.

Table 3—Mulch C:N in original mulch material and in material collected 

from soil surface 4 years following wildfire and mulch application. 

Values in parentheses represent standard error (n = 3).

Mulch type C:N

Wheat straw – original 142a

Wheat straw – 4 yr old 50.8 (3.87)

Wood strands - original 532a

Wood strands – 4 yr old 214 (27.6) 

a Original values were obtained from a single large (~5 L) sample of 

original mulch material.
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Research Note RMRS-RN-69. August 2014.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Marshell Moy, Joanne Tirocke, and Gary Qualmann for field sampling assistance. This research was supported in part by funds provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest 

Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station to the University of Idaho under agreement 08-JV-11221634-236 

and the University of Idaho. We greatly appreciate the funding and logistical support of the Pomeroy Ranger 

District, Umatilla National Forest, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of the Interior 

Joint Fire Science Program that partially funded this research.

We thank the hard-working field crews who helped with installation and data collection.

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