Abstract: Forest fire is one of the most important disturbance factors for forest ecosystems. Forest fire can change soil environment and affect the biotic and abiotic factors of soil nitrogen cycling, posing a great impact on soil nitrogen pool and cycling process. It is important to elucidate the changes of forest soil nitrogen components under fire interference for understanding the response mechanism of forest soil nitrogen cycling and transformation. However, the available results on the effects of fire disturbance on soil nitrogen cycling and transformation are not consistent, and the impact mechanism is still unclear. By reviewing a large number of relevant literatures, we focused on the effects of fire disturbance on key processes of soil nitrogen cycling, such as nitrogen loss, nitrogen retention, nitrogen mineralization, denitrification and gaseous nitrogen emission, and the impact mechanism of fire disturbance on soil nitrogen cycling and transformation. It is concluded that soil nitrogen cycling and transformation are mainly affected by three factors: fire factors (fire intensity, fire frequency, post-fire recovery time, post-fire recovery mode, post-fire black carbon and ash content), vegetation types, and soil properties. The driving mechanisms of fire disturbance on soil nitrogen cycling, the long-term effects of fire disturbance on soil nitrogen cycling, and the effects of products after fire disturbance on soil nitrogen cycling were discussed and prospected to better understand soil nitrogen cycling under fire disturbance.

Key words: fire disturbance, forest soil, vegetation type, nitrogen cycle, nitrogen transformation