Summary:

Spring burning of meadows and wasteland vegetation makes every year a big problem associated with the risk of fire. The negative impact of fire on the ecosystem is also often stressed. In a field experiment located in the Prandocin village the influence of a controlled burning on selected elements of habitat and species composition of the meadow sward was investigated. The effect of fire was compared to mowing, mowing and removal biomass and lack of treatment. The highest maximum temperature during the burning (600 ° C) was recorded at a height of 15 cm, above soil surface, that is a short distance above the biomass. The temperature at the soil surface did not exceed 400 ° C and at a depth of 5 cm below the soil the temperature only slightly increased (up to 35 C °). There were no statistically significant differences of treatments in terms of yield and soil moisture measured two weeks after burning. However, the soil was heated significantly faster in plots burned and cut with the removal of biomass. The plant species composition did not differ significantly between treatments of the experiment. The main reason for the modest effect of burning may be a small amount of biomass. That caused short duration and low temperature of fire. The low level of old biomass on unburned plots only slightly hampered the regrowth of plants. The results suggest that in the case of plant communities with low biomass the effect of fire on plants is relatively small.