Frequent fire alters soil total phosphorus but does not affect phosphorus availability in a montane grassland

Phosphorus (P) is often a limiting nutrient in highly weathered soils. Fire is a major driver of nutrient redistribution and can temporarily increase the pool of plant-available P in P-limited ecosystems. Yet, the long-term effects of frequent fire on soil P in montane grasslands remain poorly understood. We investigated how fire regime influences soil P pools using data from a long-term fire experiment in the South African Drakensberg. Total soil P, moderately labile organic and inorganic P and plant-available P were measured across five prescribed fire regimes varying in frequency (annual, biennial or infrequent) and season of burn (autumn or spring). We hypothesised that frequent fire would not alter total P in the topsoil, but expected it would increase inorganic P and plant-available P. Infrequent and biennial burns had little effect on total P; however, total P was significantly higher under annual spring burns than the other treatments, particularly the infrequent burns and annual or biennial autumn burns. In contrast, plant-available P did not respond to any fire treatment. Frequent spring burns generally increased organic P relative to inorganic P, indicating a shift in the composition of soil P pools with fire frequency and season. Overall, despite changes in topsoil total and organic P, plant-available P remained constrained, reflecting a bottleneck in the P cycle likely driven by the high P-retention capacity of these acidic Andosols. These findings highlight the complex and sometimes counterintuitive effects of fire on nutrient dynamics in montane grasslands. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10533-025-01304-w.