Plant communities and soil phytolith assemblages relationship in native grasslands from southeastern Buenos Aires Province, Argentina.

FERNÁNDEZ HONAINE, M.; OSTERRIETH, M.L. AND A.F. ZUCOL

Catena

Año: 2007 vol. 00 p. 1 - 59

In this study we have compared the phytolith production of two native grass communities typical for Argentina, namely the monospecific Paspalum quadrifarium community or "pajonal", and the Stipa- Piptochaetium community or "flechillar", some of which had been unmanaged while others have been submitted to fire and fire-grazing management activities. In our description of phytolith assemblages from plant communities and from the underlying soil horizons between 0-5 cm in depth from five different sites, we were able to determine that the phytolith production of the plant communities differs due to their diverse floristic composition. It was possible to define the type of management or the type of community based on soil phytolith assemblages. Using multivariate analysis, we found that there were differences between plant and soil phytolith assemblages. These results suggest that modern phytolith assemblages are composed not only of local and present vegetation but also by extralocal/regional and probably past vegetation. Hypotheses about the probably processes involved on phytolith incorporation to soil have emerged during our investigation.