Abstract
The aim of this work was to study the effectiveness of two post-fire emergence<em> </em>rehabilitation techniques (seeding and mulching) for reducing soil erosion as well as their effects on the soil quality; therefore in the field, experimental plots of unburnt soil, burnt soil, burnt soil plus seeding and burnt soil plus mulching were established. Soil samples were collected from the A horizon and a wide range of physical, chemical and biological soil properties were analyzed to evaluate soil quality. The effect of fire on the vegetation cover was observed after one year and changes in soil properties persisted even after four years. The phospholipid fatty acids pattern showed that in the medium-term (8-48 months after the fire), the fire may modify the soil microbial communities by altering the plant community via plant-induced changes in the soil environment. No effect of seeding or mulching on the vegetation cover was observed. The mean efficiency in preventing soil erosion between 8 and 12 months after the fire and the application of the treatments was 11% for seeding and 65% for mulching. These stabilization treatments had a minor influence on the post-fire soil quality in the medium-term (48 months); therefore, taking into account its effectiveness for reducing soil erosion, the mulching treatment is recommended as the best post-fire stabilization technique.
Highlights
In the last decades, fire has become a major disturbance of forest ecosystems by destroying the vegetation cover, causing soil degradation and increasing soil losses by erosion (Chandler et al 1983)
Similar results were obtained for data of the plant cover dynamics, the effect of the time elapsed from the fire explaining 20-90% of variance and the treatment a further 2-25% of variance only on Luzula lactea L., Agrostis spp. and Pterospartum tridentatum Willk
The recovery of the vegetation cover did not happen during the first four months after the fire, slightly increased between the 4th and the 8th months, and reached values of 36-40% between the 8th and the 12th months (Table 1)
Summary
Fire has become a major disturbance of forest ecosystems by destroying the vegetation cover, causing soil degradation and increasing soil losses by erosion (Chandler et al 1983). Throughout recent decades, this area has been affected by a temporal and spatial change in fire regime, resulting in a dramatic annual increase in the surface burnt by wildfires due to human action, changes in land use, policies and climatic fire risk Most of these wildfires occur in forest and shrubland areas, which are often located on sloping terrain, in soils with moderate erodibility mainly due to high capacity of soil infiltration, which is related to sandy texture, high SOM content and high stability of soil aggregates (Benito et al 2010; Varela et al 2010). These factors, together with post-fire meteorological conditions
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