Abstract
"Fire on the Mountain. Disturbance and Regeneration in Deciduous and Conifer Forests. 20 Years of Experience. Two test and monitoring sites in SW Germany (Forchtenberg) and Leghia (NW Romania) furnish insights to the regeneration modes after fire, clearing, burning, and cultivation -slash and burn - in a deciduous forest or after wildfire in a conifer stand. Forest maps and archivalia helped to reconstruct the forest history of the last 250 years of the Forchtenberg site, which as a heritage still influences the present situation. We could document the autonomous co- evolution of vegetation and soil over two decades. It was done by transects and mapping as well as by soil analysis and micromorphology. The role of soil animals for the weathering of charcoals became evident. The evolution of vegetation and soil after a wildfire could be studied on the Leghia site and compared with the Forchtenberg results. As the Leghia site was not cleared after the fire, it enabled us to follow the stages of decay and of regeneration, where conifers do not play a role. Moreover, one could investigate the effects of grass- and pasture fire, still active in the region. It also evidenced the necessary differentiation of charred material into wood- and grass coal. The indicator values of topsoil/soil surfaces are presented as well as those of charred material for the regeneration stages. Finally, we will discuss the fire risk in deciduous forests under a changing climate. Keywords: Forest disturbance, succession types, forest history, slash and burn, wild fire, charcoal taphonomy, fire risk. "
Highlights
Slash and burn is a widely discussed item in archaeology and landscape history
As the Leghia site was not cleared after the fire, it enabled us to follow the stages of decay and of regeneration, where conifers do not play a role
The analysis of the pathways of secondary succession of vegetation and soil after forest fire as well as on slash-and-burn experiment sites yielded a series of results:
Summary
Slash and burn is a widely discussed item in archaeology and landscape history (see Jacomet et al 2017, Rösch et al 2017). The one is the long-time Forchtenberg experiment (Rösch et al 2011, Schulz et al 2014), in SW Germany and the other is the wildfire site at Leghia/NW-Romania (Schulz 2017) For both sites the main questions are: which are the pathways of regeneration of vegetation and soil after severe disturbance such as fire and how many years it will take? Maps were established in parallel for the soil and plant cover They serve to establish time series and to explore the types of evolution. The question of a rising fire risk in deciduous forests will be discussed too on the background of a changing climate
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