Soil properties and vegetation patterns four years after a wildfire and post-fire salvage logging treatment in a Mediterranean environment

Abstract

<p>High-severity wildfires have a major impact on vegetation and soil properties. Moreover, recently burned areas are susceptible to extreme rainfall events and post-fire management. However, little is known about the impact of extreme rainfall and salvage logging on the relationship between soil properties and vegetal recovery and their spatial distribution. This study examines the effects of intense rainfall and post-fire management on soil properties and vegetal recovery and their spatial distribution in a small area using principal component analysis (PCA) medium-term after the fire. The vegetal recovery was measured using the index as Richness (S), Evenness (It), Density (D) and Diversity (H'). The soil variables studied were aggregate stability (AS), total nitrogen (TN), soil organic matter (SOM), inorganic carbon (IC), C/N ratio, calcium carbonates (CaCO3), pH, electrical conductivity (EC), available phosphorus (P), extractable calcium (Ca), extractable magnesium (Mg), extractable sodium (Na) and extractable potassium (K). Each PCA for vegetation and soil (one year after fire and four years after fire) allowed us to extract five factors and carry out the variograms with each factor for each moment. The preliminary results showed an increase in factors that mainly explain the results at the time four years after the fire compared to one year after. The PCA score maps illustrated a marked change in the spatial distribution of the variables one year and four years after the wildfire.</p>