Soil Erosion Potential after Fire and Rehabilitation Treatments in Greece

Abstract

Wildland fires are one of the more severe disturbances for natural ecosystems in the Mediterranean basin and can become a critical factor in the process of soil erosion. A quantitative assessment of soil erosion is needed in order to form an assessment on the extent and magnitude of post-fire soil erosion potential and to assess the effectiveness of the rehabilitation treatment. On 21 August 2006, a large wildland fire occurred in the Kassandra Peninsula in northern Greece, which burned one fifth of the Peninsula. After the fire, in order to protect the soil against erosion, the Forest Services applied a hillslope rehabilitation treatment of contour-felled logs and branch piles. In this paper, we report quantitative estimation of the wildland fire and erosion control treatment on soil erosion potential. The coupling of the Universal Soil Loss Equation and the Geographical Information Systems was implemented and the erosion potential was found to be 2.8 t/ha/year pre-fire, 29.5 t/ha/year post-fire, and 21.3 t/ha/year after rehabilitation treatment. The model can successfully contribute in the planning of the rehabilitation treatment but it cannot be used in the quantification of the soil loss after the application of the erosion control measures. The comparisons between the results of the three cases indicate the importance of the immediate erosion control measures in order to mitigate soil loss and restore the natural environment.

Restauración ecológica post-incendio de un bosque mixto de Pinus-Quercus del noreste de México

“…El tratamiento de restauración consistió en la colocación de material arbóreo incendiado en líneas de nivel perpendiculares a la pendiente con una distancia de 3 m entre sí. Este tratamiento tuvo como objetivo principal el control de la escorrentía, y la retención y acumulación de suelo de arrastre (Myronidis et al, 2010;Robichaud, 2005). En el mes de septiembre del mismo año, coincidiendo con la época de mayor precipitación, el área se reforestó con P. pseudostrobus de un año de edad a una densidad de 2,000 individuos·ha -1…”

“…The rehabilitation treatment, known as contour-felled logs, consisted of placing burned tree material in contour lines perpendicular to the slope with a distance of 3 m from each other. This treatment's main objective was to control runoff and retain and accumulate soil (Myronidis et al, 2010;Robichaud, 2005 , 2010). En las parcelas se identificaron todas las especies leñosas con diámetro de tallo ≥ 1 cm y se midieron los diámetros de copa en dirección nortesur y este-oeste.…”

“…The most common practices worldwide are planting herbaceous (Infalt & Young, 2008;Li, Liao, Jiang, Huang, & He, 2010) and woody species (Jiménez, Jurado, Aguirre, & Estrada, 2005;Mata et al, 2010;Ortíz-Rodríguez & Rodríguez-Trejo, 2008), mulching (de Wolfe, Santi, Ey, & Gartner, 2008 and placing soil retention barriers (Myronidis, Emmanouloudis, Mitsopoulos, & Riggos, 2010). In northeastern Mexico, the most common practices are reforesting with woody species and establishing soil retention barriers (Comisión Nacional Forestal [CONAFOR], 2006).…”

Post-fire soil hydrology, water erosion and restoration strategies in Andosols: a review of evidence from the Canary Islands (Spain)

“…Due to budget constraints, no monitoring programmes have been put in place to evaluate the effectiveness of these treatments for Andosols. However, erosion barriers, widely used at the beginning of the century as an effective on-site control of runoff and erosion in Spain (Fernández et al 2011, Badia et al 2015, Ferreira et al 2015 and elsewhere (Raftoyannis & Spanos 2005, Robichaud et al 2008, Myronidis et al 2010, Ahn et al 2013, Aristeidis & Vasiliki 2015, have been replaced lately by dry mulch treatments by land managers. This treatment aims to provide cover to the mineral soil, since most studies indicate that the proportion of bare soil is the main driving factor of soil erosion in the post-fire period (Robichaud et al 2010).…”

Integration of a Hydrological Model within a Geographical Information System: Application to a Forest Watershed

“…Forest fires are very common events in the Mediterranean type of ecosystems [16][17][18]. A recent forest fire on July 2007 endangered the forested area of mountain Troodos.…”