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In many countries, prescribed or planned burning is increasingly used as a management strategy to reduce the risk and negative effects of wildfires. As a by-product of this practice, ash, charcoal and partially charred material (referred to here as pyrogenic carbon, PC) is created. The amount and type of PC produced and fate of this form of carbon is uncertain. PC is often assumed to be resistant to chemical and microbial degradation and therefore potentially persistent in soils for hundreds or thousands of years. As a result, PC has been proposed as a sink for carbon and promoted for its storage potential in soil. We hypothesised that the differing components of PC would interact differently with soil processes and have varying potential for carbon storage. We analysed the chemical composition of PC produced by prescribed fire in a eucalypt forest and measured its effect on soil respiration. A laboratory incubation …