Influence of topography on sediment dynamics and soil chemical properties in a Mediterranean forest historically affected by wildfires: NE Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

Wildfires are a major concern in Mediterranean areas and play an important role in the pedogenic process, as they usually increase soil credibility due to the destruction of vegetation cover and soil structure. On top of these factors, slope and aspect also determine the degree of retention and availability of water and nutrients in soils after fire, which in turn influence the recovery of vegetation and its protective effect against erosion. This work aims to describe the effects of slope and aspect on soil development in an area historically affected by wildfires. The study area is located in Ódena (NE Iberian Peninsula) in a Mediterranean forest. Four representative soil profiles were sampled from a south-facing steep slope, north-facing steep slope, south-facing gentle slope and north-facing gentle slope. In each profile 11 samples were sampled. The amount of soil organic matter (SOM), inorganic C (IC) and total N (TN) as well as cation availability, pH, and electrical conductivity (EC) were determined for all the horizons of each profile. Results showed that IC, TN, C/N ratio, pH, EC and K were mainly affected by aspect, whereas organic matter, C/N ratio, pH, EC, Ca and Mg were especially influenced by slope. Slope determined the amount and availability of SOM and nutrients, which highlights the need to prioritise the management of areas susceptible to erosion in order to ensure soil and ecosystem functionality.

How Mediterranean Ecosystem Deals with Wildfire Impact on Soil Ecosystem Services and Functions: A Review

“…The recovery of the vegetation cover varies depending on the capabilities different species have for regrowth [77]. Some species have a significant regrowth capacity, allowing for a relatively complete recovery of the vegetation cover in a short period [78]. Additionally, the use of so-called "fire retardants" during firefighting operations has detrimental effects on the soil.…”

Vulnerabilidades de los elementos esenciales y evaluación integral del riesgo de desastres para la planificación urbana y la gestión del riesgo en Azogues, Ecuador

“…A partir del concepto del RD (Lummen y Yamada, 2014;Schelhorn et al, 2014), se distinguen tres enfoques metodológicos en los estudios aplicados a nivel global. El primero es el análisis de la peligrosidad frente a una o varias amenazas como podrían ser los DL (deslizamientos) (Barrantes et al, 2011;Younes y Erazo, 2016), los incendios forestales (IF) (Pazmiño, 2019;Reyes y Balcázar, 2021;Francos et al, 2021Francos et al, , 2022Sivrikaya y Küçük, 2022) y las inundaciones (Rahmati et al, 2016;Sánchez-García et al, 2019). El segundo es la evaluación del riesgo multi amenazas y vulnerabilidades (sociales, físicas o espaciales) como las múltiples amenazas (Aksha et al, 2020), las inundaciones (López-Valencia, 2019), los DL (Singh et al, 2021) y los sismos (Xofi et al, 2022).…”

“…Por otra parte, además de la cobertura vegetal, Suryabhagavan et al (2016) correlacionan las variables topográficas y de proximidad, como distancia a carreteras, para el estudio de la peligrosidad a IF. En cuanto a la pendiente y elevación, variables que influyen en el comportamiento del fuego y en el proceso ignición (Busico et al, 2019;Francos et al, 2021), algunos autores establecen que con rangos mayores de pendiente la peligrosidad a los IF se incrementa, y en el caso de la elevación, existe mayor peligrosidad en las zonas bajas (Moraga, 2010;Suryabhagavan et al, 2016;Enoh et al, 2021;Sivrikaya y Küçük, 2022;Francos et al, 2022). Lo señalado es consistente con lo identificado en este estudio, lo cual puede ser relacionado a las pendientes vinculadas a las geoformas de las zonas con mayor peligrosidad.…”

Continuous Tracking of Forest Disturbance and Recovery in the Greater Khingan Mountains from Annual Landsat Imagery

“…Chen et al emphasized that topographic indicators, especially elevation, have an essential impact on vegetation dynamics in the GKM [28]. Slope is another important factor since soil erosion and water loss are severe in areas with steeper slopes, resulting in relatively low nutrient content and insufficient vegetation growth [58]. It is worth adding that variations in human accessibility across different geographical locations can result in disparities in the frequency and severity of human disturbances [59].…”