Does rapid utilisation of elevated nutrient availability allow eucalypts to dominate in the tropical savannas of Australia?

Northern Australia's savannas are amongst the most fire-prone biomes on Earth, and are dominated by eucalypts (Eucalyptus and Corymbia spp.). It is not clear what processes allows this group to dominate under such extreme fire frequencies and if a superior ability to compete for nutrients and water might play a role. There is evidence that eucalypts are adapted to frequent fires; juvenile eucalypts escape the fire trap by growing rapidly in height between fires. However, non-eucalypts are less able to escape the fire trap and tend to have stand structures strongly skewed towards suppressed juveniles. The mechanisms that drive these contrasting fire responses are not well understood. Here we describe the results of a controlled glasshouse seedling experiment that evaluated the relative importance of nutrient and water availability in determining height growth and biomass growth of two eucalypt and one non-eucalypt tree species, common in northern Australian savannas. We demonstrate that ...