Effects of wildfire on soil nutrients in Mediterranean ecosystems

Caon, Lucrezia; Vallejo, V. Ramón; Ritsema, C.J.; Geissen, Violette

doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2014.09.001

Cited by 188 publications

(149 citation statements)

References 118 publications

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“…However, the past three decades have been characterized by an overall decrease in area burned, and also a decrease in the number of fires from mid-2000 (figure 2) [37,38]. This is often not recognized even within the scientific community, with some authors continuing to underpin the importance of their fire-related research with an increase of fire in this region [16,39].…”

Section: Has Fire Increased In Many Regions Around the Globe?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Global trends in wildfire and its impacts: perceptions versus realities in a changing world

Doerr¹,

Santín²

2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

481

269

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Wildfire has been an important process affecting the Earth's surface and atmosphere for over 350 million years and human societies have coexisted with fire since their emergence. Yet many consider wildfire as an accelerating problem, with widely held perceptions both in the media and scientific papers of increasing fire occurrence, severity and resulting losses. However, important exceptions aside, the quantitative evidence available does not support these perceived overall trends. Instead, global area burned appears to have overall declined over past decades, and there is increasing evidence that there is less fire in the global landscape today than centuries ago. Regarding fire severity, limited data are available. For the western USA, they indicate little change overall, and also that area burned at high severity has overall declined compared to pre-European settlement. Direct fatalities from fire and economic losses also show no clear trends over the past three decades. Trends in indirect impacts, such as health problems from smoke or disruption to social functioning, remain insufficiently quantified to be examined. Global predictions for increased fire under a warming climate highlight the already urgent need for a more sustainable coexistence with fire. The data evaluation presented here aims to contribute to this by reducing misconceptions and facilitating a more informed understanding of the realities of global fire. This article is part of themed issue ‘The interaction of fire and mankind’.

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Section: Has Fire Increased In Many Regions Around the Globe?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Global trends in wildfire and its impacts: perceptions versus realities in a changing world

Doerr¹,

Santín²

2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

481

269

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“…In the case of Mediterranean ecosystems, Caon et al (2014) stated that, as a general pattern, the forest floor carbon stock was reduced after wildfire and the mineral soil carbon stock declined in the short-term as well as long-term. The severe impact of fire on the forest floor is clearly the result of almost all the fresh litterfall material being burned.…”

Section: Wildfiresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Mediterranean areas, carbon loss from mineral soil could be severe in the post-fire period due to soil erosion as the tree layer and forest floor could be greatly reduced (Novara et al, 2011;Caon et al, 2014).…”

Section: Wildfiresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forest management and carbon sequestration in the Mediterranean region: A review

et al. 2017

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Aim of study: TTo review and acknowledge the value of carbon sequestration by forest management in the Mediterranean area. Material and methods:We review the main effects of forest management by comparing the effects of silvicultural systems (even-aged vs. uneven-aged stands, coppice systems, agroforestry systems), silvicultural options (thinning, rotation period, species composition), afforestation, harvesting, fire impact or effects of shrub layer on carbon sequestration in the Mediterranean area.Main results: We illustrate as forest management can clearly improve forest carbon sequestration amounts. We conclude that forest management is an effective way to maintain and enhance high carbon sequestration rates in order to cope with climate change and provision of ecosystem services. We also think that although much effort has been put into this topic research, there are still certain gaps that must be dealt with to increase our scientific knowledge and in turn transfer this knowledge to forest practitioners in order to achieve sustainable management aimed at mitigating climate change.Research highlights: It is important to underline the importance of forests in the carbon cycle as this role can be enhanced by forest managers through sustainable forest management. The effects of different management options or disturbances can be critical as regards mitigating climate change. Understanding the effects of forest management is even more important in the Mediterranean area, given that the current high climatic variability together with historical human exploitation and disturbance events make this area more vulnerable to the effects of climate change.Additional keywords: global carbon cycle; forest sink; forest mitigation strategies; carbon sequestration potential; climate change mitigation; Mediterranean forests.

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“…Organic and mineral surface soils often display similar post-fire changes in geochemistry. These include a reduction in soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (N) through the partial to complete removal of overlying organic matter [17,21,22]; the production of inorganic nitrogen including ammonium (NH 4 + ), a product of combustion, and nitrate (NO 3 − ), a subsequent product of nitrification, that occurs in the days to months following a wildfire [23,24]; and the concentration of non-volatized base cations (e.g., Mg 2+ , Ca 2+ , K + ) into ash lost via post-fire leaching and surface runoff [25,26]. The extent of post-fire changes in soil geochemistry reflects ecosystem type, burn severity, and fire frequency [27][28][29], all of which are influenced by topography [30].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Wildfire disturbance in forested systems alters vegetation communities and soil biogeochemical cycling as a function of fire duration, frequency, and intensity [17]-factors that are directly or indirectly shaped by topography [18][19][20]. Hillslope-scale topography exerts important control on fire severity and burn frequency in Western U.S. landscapes: more frequent, low intensity wildfires occur on drier south-facing slopes in moderate drought years compared to densely vegetated north-facing slopes that experience fewer yet more severe fires during extreme drought years [20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disturbance Alters the Relative Importance of Topographic and Biogeochemical Controls on Microbial Activity in Temperate Montane Forests

Lybrand

Gallery

Trahan

et al. 2018

Forests

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Abstract:Fire and pathogen-induced tree mortality are the two dominant forms of disturbance in Western U.S. montane forests. We investigated the consequences of both disturbance types on the controls of microbial activity in soils from 56 plots across a topographic gradient one year after the 2012 High Park wildfire in Colorado. Topsoil biogeochemistry, soil CO 2 efflux, potential exoenzyme activities, and microbial biomass were quantified in plots that experienced fire disturbance, beetle disturbance, or both fire and beetle disturbance, and in plots where there was no recent evidence of disturbance. Soil CO 2 efflux, N-, and P-degrading exoenzyme activities in undisturbed plots were positively correlated with soil moisture, estimated from a topographic wetness index; coefficient of determinations ranged from 0.5 to 0.65. Conversely, the same estimates of microbial activities from fire-disturbed and beetle-disturbed soils showed little correspondence to topographically inferred wetness, but demonstrated mostly negative relationships with soil pH (fire only) and mostly positive relationships with DOC/TDN (dissolved organic carbon/total dissolved nitrogen) ratios for both disturbance types. The coefficient of determination for regressions of microbial activity with soil pH and DOC/TDN reached 0.8 and 0.63 in fire-and beetle-disturbed forests, respectively. Drivers of soil microbial activity change as a function of disturbance type, suggesting simple mathematical models are insufficient in capturing the impact of disturbance in forests.

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Effects of wildfire on soil nutrients in Mediterranean ecosystems

Cited by 188 publications

References 118 publications

Global trends in wildfire and its impacts: perceptions versus realities in a changing world

Global trends in wildfire and its impacts: perceptions versus realities in a changing world

Forest management and carbon sequestration in the Mediterranean region: A review

Disturbance Alters the Relative Importance of Topographic and Biogeochemical Controls on Microbial Activity in Temperate Montane Forests

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