Abstract
The post-fire hydrological processes depend on both land use and soil condition (burned or not). This study aims at understanding the variability of the water infiltration, surface runoff and erosion in burned soils under different land uses (forestland and cropland) in comparison to unburned sitesTo this aim, infiltration, runoff and soil losses after a wildfire in two pine and oak forests, and a cropland are evaluated in Zagros forests (Western Iran) using a portable rainfall simulator. This area represents one of the lands with the highest biodiversity and naturalistic value of the entire Middle East, but no similar hydrological evaluations have been conducted so far. The difference in infiltration between the burned and unburned sites under the three land uses was not significant (on the average less than 10%). The runoff and erosion due to the wildfire noticeably increased in the forestland (+95% and 60%, respectively) and slightly decreased in the cropland (−16% and −20%) in comparison to the unburned sites. In the burned croplands erosion requires much attention, because the soil loss is on an average 30-fold compared to the values measured in the forestland. This increase may be even higher, since the rainsplash erosion could be underestimated and the rill or gully erosion was not considered due to the use of a portable rainfall simulator. Therefore, the study suggests the adoption of suitable strategies in croplands of the Zagros forests, in order to limit the negative impacts of high-intensity fires and hydrogeological events. Overall, the study has provided an insight to improve the knowledge on soil hydrology under different land uses and soil conditions. This evaluation helps landscape planners to select the most suitable anti-erosive actions against erosion in fire-affected areas without any needs of long monitoring field campaigns or model implementation.
Highlights
Wildfire is a natural or anthropogenic agent that modifies many environmental components [1,2,3]
This study has evaluated water infiltration, surface runoff and soil losses after simulated rainfall in two pine and oak forests, and a cropland in Zagros Mountain
The working hypothesis is that the simulated wildfire plays a key role in governing the hydrological responses and it should be rejected in the cropland and accepted in the forestlands
Summary
Wildfire is a natural or anthropogenic agent that modifies many environmental components [1,2,3]. The high temperatures due to the wildfire are able to determine severe changes in the chemical properties of the burned soils, such as the pH, electrical conductivity, and contents of organic matter and nutrients [6,7]. Many physical properties of soils are affected by fire-induced modifications (water infiltration, repellency, aggregate stability, bulk density, etc.) [8,9]. Wildfire releases ash that reduces water infiltration [10], induces soil water repellency [11], and alters the contents of soil organic matter, minerals and macro-nutrients [7,12,13]. The vegetation removal and the changes in the soil properties after fire strongly modify the hydrological response of wildfire-affected areas, and these changes are often longlasting [8]. In soils with low or reduced infiltration, the net precipitation increases [5,13]
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