Comparing modelled and observed effects of ash additions on chemistry of a highly acid soil

The chemical composition of soil solutions (field percolates collected in situ and laboratory saturation extracts) and the amount of salt-extractable cations were measured at several microsites (unburnt, moderately burnt, and intensely burnt ashbeds) after a fuel reduction burning in a subalpine Eucalyptus pauciflora forest. Soil samples were collected 1, 58, 375, 745, and 1095 days after the fire, and soil percolates were obtained on 17 occasions during the initial year. A model of coupled equilibria, which includes insoluble salts, multiple cation exchange, and inorganic complexation, was used to describe soil chemical changes after fire and ash addition. The model was able to describe temporal changes in cation concentrations of held percolates and soil exchangeable cations. Measurements of extractable cations using unbuffered salt solution on samples taken immediately after fire suggest immediate changes in exchangeable cations which were related to solubilisation of cations from ash, and not to changes in exchangeable cations in soils. Modelling suggests that under natural conditions the differences in solubility of cations in ash result in slow changes in exchangeable cations extending over a period of 6 years or more. The time required to reacidify the surface layer of ashbed soil was estimated to be 45 years when annual acid input was 0.5 kmol H+/ha.