Hi! Liz, I think you are on track with the issues on Reveg down under. Over much of Oz we have alkaline soils in the current land use. As you would know, most land when cleared included the use of fire to remove the biomass and to kill the seeds and roots of the native Veg. This also burns the soil carbon and kills the soil biota.
In a natural Oz bush land, there is a thin layer of leaf litter/ mulch on the surface and a humus rich (but often thin) layer of top soil. This is neutral to slightly acid and suited to the germination and early growth of the typical native species. But fire will destroy this and leave an inhospitable alkaline seed bed which will stop most species from growing. We are currently doing research on Eyre Peninsula that we hope will over come this. We are doing well in the acid soils and now have to transfer this to the alkaline soils. Gil Liz Davis wrote: > Hi Robin > > I am interested in reading more about this. I could be way off track here, > but can't help but wonder if it may be a solution, or part of, to a large > problem we face in Australia. native tree regeneration is having a > difficult time, as the trees will not establish in some areas due to the > conventional farming that has gone on previously. As you can imagine it is > a fairly new problem, which only continues to grow at this point in time. > Originally I was thinking that leaf litter,(specific to that region) > including twigs were put back into these areas to aid the return of > necessary microorganisms, required by native trees. It was my uni that got > me going on this topic. > Thanks > > L&L > Liz
