Harvesting as an Alternative to Burning for Managing Spinifex Grasslands in Australia

Table 2

Summary of soil (total and extractable) and leaf nutrients of Triodia pungens in control and treatments. Results are mean values with standard errors. Means followed by different letters are significantly different (𝑃<0.05) across treatments.

	Control	Wet season harvest	Wet season burn	Dry season harvest	Dry season burn
Soil C and nutrients (mg g^−1)
Total C	12±0.30	15±1.1	13±1.0	14±1.2	15±0.5
Total N	1.8±0.01	2.0±0.01	1.7±0.01	2.0±0.01	2.0±0.01
Total P	0.3±0.04	0.3±0.02	0.2±0.01	0.2±0.01	0.2±0.02
Ext. P	0.01±0.00	0.02±0.00	0.01±0.00	0.01±0.00	0.01±0.00
Total K	2.3±0.11	2.2±0.63	2.9±0.27	2.2±0.12	2.3±0.07
Ext. K	0.1±0.01	0.1±0.01	0.1±0.01	0.1±0.02	0.1±0.01
Total Ca	0.3±0.04^a	0.2±0.03^ab	0.15±0.01^b	0.12±0.01^b	0.16±0.01^b
Ext. Ca	0.1±0.02	0.2±0.03	0.1±0.01	0.1±0.01	0.2±0.03
Total Mg	0.2±0.02^a	0.2±0.05^a	0.2±0.01^a	0.1±0.01^b	0.2±0.01^a
Ext. Mg	0.05±0.01	0.05±0.00	0.04±0.00	0.04±0.00	0.04±0.01
Total S	0.9±0.08	1.2±0.05	0.8±0.05	1.2±0.09	0.9±0.03
Ext. S	0.01±0.00	0.01±0.00	0.01±0.00	0.01±0.00	0.01±0.00
Leaf C and nutrients (mg g^−1)
C	442±3.4	445±1.5	446±0.07	442±3.3	448±2.9
N	8.2±0.02	9.8±0.03	9.4±0.04	9.1±0.03	8.7±0.02
P	0.5±0.01	0.5±0.01	0.5±0.01	0.4±0.01	0.5±0.00
K	9.2±0.34	8.6±0.39	8.4±0.28	8.8±0.27	9.0±0.29
Ca	3.7±0.30^a	2.2±0.09^b	2.5±0.09^b	2.7±0.07^b	2.6±0.16^b
Mg	1.8±0.03	1.4±0.02	1.6±0.03	1.4±0.03	1.5±0.02
S	1.6±0.02	1.3±0.06	1.3±0.09	1.3±0.03	1.3±0.02