Fire is a worldwide phenomenon with important ecological, social and economical impacts. Fire removes vegetation cover and exposes soil to erosion agents. The degree of soil exposure depends of fire severity, evaluated by the degree of vegetation disturbance from canopy cover through surface plants, litter and soil organic matter consumption, size of residual woody stems, characteristics of ash and char, and other factors. This post-fire evaluation sighificantly contributes to determining if the impacts of fire effects can be minimized by management intervention. In countries where wildfires are frequent (e.g. Mediterranean countries, United States, Australia, Russia) important amounts of money are invested to recover burned areas and to soil protect, including some methods that are ineffective such as tree plantation. During these activities, soil is subjected to a tremendous impact (e.g. use of machinery), increasing vulnerability to erosion and nutrient depletion thereby compounding the potential impacts of fire with the the effects of human intervention. Another relevant aspect is that in many circumstances vegetation can recover quickly without interventaion thus avoiding the concurrent costs and impacts of mitigation activities. In this course we aim to present to the participants examples of both efficient and non-efficient of soil restoration strategies following wildfires, including impacts of direct burned area management (e.g wood remove) and natural recovery trajectories without intervention.
Program
Mooring Session. Chairpersons: Paulo Pereira, Kevin Hyde and Lorena Zavala.
10:30-10:35 Open Ceremony Paulo Pereira (Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania), Antonio Jordan (University of Sevilla, Spain), Kevin Hyde (University of Wyoming, USA), Lorena Zavala(University of Sevilla, Spain).
10:35-11:05 Jorge Mataix Solera (Miguel Hernandez University, Spain) What to do or avoid to do in the post-fire short-term period? An example of effect of salvage logging treatments in soil properties.
11:05-11:35 Anna Brook (University of Haifa, Israel) Wildfire Ash-Soil Interactions and Impacts on Pedogenetic Processes and Soil Properties.
11:35-12:00 Agustin Merino (University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain) Soil organic matter degradation after wildfire. Implications for soil restoration.
12:00-13:30 Lunch.
Afternoon Session. Chairpersons: Jorge Mataix-Solera and Antonio Jordan
13:30-14:00 Cathelijne Stoof (Wageningen University, The Netherlands)How the understanding of fundamental mechanisms can benefit post-fire soil restoration.
14:00-14:30 Oscar Gonzalez-Pelayo (University of Valencia, Spain)Soil restoration strategies after wilfires: Experiences from Portugal and Spain.
14:30-15:00 Paulo Pereira (Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania).Ash role in soil restoration in the immediat period after the fire.
15:00-15:30 End Ceremony and Diploma Delivery
Support:
Division on Soil System Sciences of the EGU.
FUEGORED, Spanish Network on Forest Fire Effects on Soils.
GEOFIRE Project (Geochemical Alterations in Fire-affected Soils (CGL2012-38655-C04-01), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.
POSTFIRE Project. Evaluation of soil quality, soil erosion control and restoration of vegetation cover under different post-fire managements and scenarios (CGL2013-47862-C2-1-R), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.