IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i9p5178-d549415.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effects of Fire on the Organic and Chemical Properties of Soil in a Pinus halepensis Mill. Forest in Rocallaura, NE Spain

Author

Listed:
  • Miquel Àngel Xifré-Salvadó

    (Department of Geography, Faculty of Geography and History, Universitat de Barcelona, 08001 Barcelona, Spain)

  • Núria Prat-Guitart

    (Pau Costa Foundation, Mossèn Cinto Verdaguer, 08552 Taradell, Spain)

  • Marcos Francos

    (Departamento de Ciencias Históricas y Geográficas, Universidad de Tarapacá, 1000000 Arica, Chile)

  • Xavier Úbeda

    (Department of Geography, Faculty of Geography and History, Universitat de Barcelona, 08001 Barcelona, Spain)

  • Marc Castellnou

    (Grup de Recolzament d’Actuacions Forestals (GRAF), Bombers de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Av. de Serragalliners, Cerdanyola del Vallès, 08193 Barcelona, Spain)

Abstract

The present study was conducted following a fire that took place in Rocallaura (NE Iberian Peninsula) in 23 June 2016 with the aim of analyzing the chemical properties of soil in burnt and unburnt areas in order to determine the short-term effects of fire on an ecosystem dominated by Pinus halepensis Mill. Transects were laid out in a control area and an adjacent burnt area. Laboratory analyses were performed to determine the chemical properties of the organic and mineral soil layers at 5 cm and 10 cm (total carbon, total nitrogen, organic and inorganic carbon, carbonates, pH, electrical conductivity, and major cations). The results show partial combustion of the organic substrate, with a significant increase in TC, OC, TN, EC and K + , and a slight decrease in pH in the post-fire area compared to the control area, demonstrating that the fire was of low intensity and did not generate significant short-term negative impacts on the soil. Soils of this type, with high organic matter content, tend to maintain their structure after a low-intensity fire and retain the nutrients necessary for ecosystem recovery and resilience.

Suggested Citation

  • Miquel Àngel Xifré-Salvadó & Núria Prat-Guitart & Marcos Francos & Xavier Úbeda & Marc Castellnou, 2021. "Effects of Fire on the Organic and Chemical Properties of Soil in a Pinus halepensis Mill. Forest in Rocallaura, NE Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-13, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:9:p:5178-:d:549415
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/9/5178/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/9/5178/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kezhen Liu & Lifu Shu & Cheng He, 2022. "Effects of Prescribed Fire on Meadow Soil Chemical Properties in Nanwenghe Nature Reserve," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-8, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:9:p:5178-:d:549415. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.