Pinus halepensis M. versus Quercus ilex subsp. Rotundifolia L. runoff and soil erosion at pedon scale under natural rainfall in Eastern Spain three decades after a forest fire

Abstract

Afforestation aims to recover the vegetation cover, and restore natural ecosystems. The plant species selected for restoration will determine species richness and the fate of the ecosystem. Research focussing on the impact of vegetation recovery on soil quality are abundant, especially on fire affected land and where rehabilitation, afforestation and restoration projects were carried out. However, little is known about how different plants species affect soil erosion and water losses, which are key factors that will impact the fate of the afforested land. Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis M.) is the species commonly used for afforestation in the Mediterranean and is very successful when natural recovery takes place, however, the original forests were composed of Holm oaks (Quercus ilex subsp. rotundifolia L.). There is little information about the hydrological and erosional impact of this change of vegetation cover stimulated by a millennia old forest use in the Mediterranean, and a century old afforestation policies and natural recovery as a consequence of land abandonment. To get insights in the effect of plant species on runoff generation and soil erosion, individual trees should be selected. Plots of 1 m 2 are necessary to identify homogeneous patches, and were installed under Aleppo pine (4 plots) and Holm oaks (4 plots) in a 30 (34)-years old plant cover recovered after a forest fire that took place in 1979. A raingauge was installed in the study site to characterize the rainfall. The soil erosion plots were built with metal borders and each plot drained to a collector (gutter) and a 60 L container to store the surface runoff. Runoff was measured after each rainfall event and sediment concentration was determined by desiccation. Results show that Aleppo pine covered soils yield six times more runoff (232 mm, 8.31%) than Holm oaks (40 mm, 1.4%) during the experimental period of 2010-2014, when rainfall amount 2,721.1 mm. Runoff sediment concentration was higher in the Aleppo pine plots (4.9 g l À1) than in the Holm oaks plots (2.6 g l À1). Soil erosion rate was ten times higher in Aleppo pine (2.6 Mg ha À1 y À1) than in Holm oaks (0.26 Mg ha À1 y À1).

Runoff and soil erosion responses to rainfall and vegetation cover under various afforestation management regimes in subtropical montane forest

“…The runoff initiation threshold that is used to describe the rainfall retention capacity and runoff initiation should be high in the forested areas due to the high interception and soil permeability. For example, Cerdà, Borja, Úbeda, Martínez‐Murillo, and Keesstra () demonstrated that the threshold for initiating runoff in Aleppo pine and Holm oak plantation in Mediterranean area could be up to ~18 and ~30 mm, whereas the threshold was only ~10.0 mm in our plots (Figure a).…”

“…The low threshold of runoff initiation and low RC characterized the rainfall–runoff behavior in this high‐rainfall region. Conceptually, the threshold of runoff initiation in forest area should be high (Cerdà et al, ), because the intense precipitation might exceed the infiltration capacity and generate infiltration excess resulting in overland flow quickly (Castillo, Gomez‐Plaza, & Martinez‐Mena, ). However, the quite low threshold of runoff imitation in our forested cases may reflect the abundant rainfall.…”

Road Network and the Spatial Distribution of Wildfires in the Valencian Community (1993–2015)

“…Further studies should specifically focus on intrinsic changes in the carbon cycle [93], the role of soils in the earth cycles [94] and the soil erosion cycle [95]. Additionally, most research carried out on forest fires has investigated plant composition, soil properties, soil erosion and runoff generation, and the restoration of soil and vegetation cover after fire [96][97][98][99][100][101]. Little attention was instead paid to identify the causes and the spatial distribution of forest fires, demonstrating, for example, that roads are a serious source of ignition.…”

Assessment of soil erosion under rainfed sugarcane in KwaZulu‐Natal, South Africa

“…This variations of soil erosion could largely be attributed to the different erosion mechanism from splash (micro‐plot scale) to interrill (plot scale). The micro‐plot had a short slope length, important when identifying homogeneous soil patches that are usually dominated by raindrop detachment of soil particles and splash transport erosion mechanisms (Cerdà et al, ). Bagarello et al .…”