Minerals and dry matter in coastal scrub and grassland at Sydney, Australia

Two adjacent coastal ecosystems, dry sclerophyll scrub and introduced grassland, were sampled two (grassland) or three (scrub) times throughout one year to estimate total and component dry matter and mineral contents. The soil was the major mineral pool in both ecosystems and contained at least 60% of all minerals except potassium. The scrub live plus dead biomass amounted to 150 t ha^-1 of which half was below ground. The distribution of minerals was similar to that of biomass. In the grassland 70% of the biomass was below ground but only half the biotic minerals were located here. Although the grassland total live plus dead biomass was one-sixth that of the scrub, mineral amounts in the biomass ranged between one-third (N) and one-twentieth (Ca) of the amounts in the scrub. Leaf concentrations of N, P, and K were lower in most scrub species than in the grass while leaf Ca and Mg were generally higher in the scrub than in the grass.