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Special Issue "Soil and Plant Restoration after Wildfire"

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A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Ecology and Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 September 2023) | Viewed by 3321

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Dr. Manuel Esteban Lucas-Borja

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Department of Agroforestry Technology and Science & Genetics, School of Advanced Agricultural & Forestry Engineering, Castilla La Mancha University, Campus Universitario s/n, C.P. 02071 Albacete, Spain
Interests: natural regeneration; soil erosion; forest hydrology; nutrient cycling; soil microbiology; forest management; forest fires
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Dr. Demetrio Antonio Zema

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Department of Agricultural Science (AGRARIA), Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria, 89127 Reggio Calabria, Italy
Interests: hydrological modelling; watershed management; soil conservation; flooding risk assessment; river restoration
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Special Issue Information

Dear colleagues,

Wildfires are a natural disturbance factor in Mediterranean forest ecosystems, where climate change and fire suppression have altered natural fire patterns. High-intensity fires modify the hydrologic response of soil and enhance its degradation, removing vegetation and altering chemical, physical, and biological soil properties. For instance, as regards soil hydrology, it is well documented that decreased infiltration and increased overland flow after wildfires, leading to increasing erosion rates and soil degradation. Therefore, mitigation of post-fire effects is compulsory in order to reduce soil exposure to hydrological and quality degradation. Mitigating the post-fire effects on soil has resulted in an increased use of post-fire treatments, in which soil stabilization treatments are crucial for diminishing soil degradation. Post-fire treatments may be divided into three categories: (i) emergency stabilization; (ii) rehabilitation; and (iii) restoration. Many experiments developed in the USA and Europe have shown that long-term rehabilitation and restoration actions are often focused on the biotic components of the ecosystem. For these activities, recovery of native plant communities and habitats, maintenance of plant biodiversity, re-establishment of timber or grazing species, and control of invasive weeds are the most important targets. The objectives of this session are to bring together experiences from different parts of the world on plant and soil recovery after wildfires. Session outputs will be very helpful in order to establish future guidelines for wildfire-prone areas.

Dr. Manuel Esteban Lucas-Borja
Dr. Demetrio Antonio Zema
Guest Editors

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Keywords

soil restoration
plant recovery
forest fires
climate change

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Open AccessArticle

Assessment of Post-Fire Phenological Changes Using MODIS-Derived Vegetative Indices in the Semiarid Oak Forests

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Forests 2023, 14(3), 590; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14030590 - 16 Mar 2023

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Abstract

Wildfire has significant impact on plant phenology. The plants’ phenological variables, derived from time series satellite data, can be monitored and the changes in satellite imagery may be used to identify the beginning, peak, and end of the growing season. This study investigated the use of remote sensing data and land surface phenology (LSP) parameters to evaluate the impacts of fire. The LSP parameters included the start of growing season (SOS), the length of the growing season (LOS), the end of the growing season (EOS), maximum greenness of the season (Gmax), and minimum greenery in the season (Gmin) in the fire-impacted, semiarid oak forests of Iran. These LSP parameters were extracted from multitemporal normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and enhanced vegetation index (EVI2) data, acquired from MODIS sensor images in Zagros of the Ilam province in western Iran. By extracting LSP indices from the NDVI and EVI2 data, the indices were compared between burned forest areas, areas surrounding the burned forests, and unburned areas and for timesteps representing pre-fire, fire (i.e., year of fire), and post-fire (i.e., 2 years) conditions. It was found that for the burned area, there were significant differences in Gmax and the day that Gmax occurred. Furthermore, there was also a significant difference in Gmin between the pre- and post-fire conditions when NDVI was used and a significant difference between Gmax when EVI2 was used. The results also showed that in both time series there was a significant difference between the burned and control area in terms of Gmax. In general, the results showed that the fire had a negative effect on LSP, but in the two years after the fire, there were signs of forest restoration. This study provides necessary information to inform forest and resource conservation and restoration programs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil and Plant Restoration after Wildfire)

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Open AccessArticle

The Impacts of Post-Fire Straw Mulching and Salvage Logging on Soil Properties and Plant Diversity in a Mediterranean Burned Pine Forest

Raúl Ortega

Demetrio Antonio Zema

Nicolas Valiente

Rocio Soria

Isabel Miralles

and

Manuel Esteban Lucas-Borja

Forests 2022, 13(10), 1580; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13101580 - 27 Sep 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1132

Abstract

In the Mediterranean forests, wildfires and post-fire management actions may degrade soil properties and negatively impact vegetation characteristics. These effects may reduce soil functionality and result in loss of plant diversity. Although straw mulching and salvage logging are commonly carried out in burned forests, their impacts on respiration of forest soils as well as on species richness and evenness of forest plants have been little explored. To fill these gaps, this study has evaluated the soil respiration, different soil physico-chemical properties, as well as plant diversity in a forest of Castilla La Mancha (Central Eastern Spain), burned by a wildfire and then subjected alternatively to salvage logging or straw mulching or to both techniques. Compared to the unburned soils, immediately after the fire mulching and salvage logging alone increased (+146%) and reduced the soil respiration (−9%), respectively, the latter especially in combination with mulching. However, these differences decreased over time, and the mulched and non-logged areas always showed the maximum soil respiration. The post-fire treatments also significantly influenced the main physico-chemical properties of the experimental soils. No evident changes were found for the pH of the logged and mulched soils compared to the control. Mulching coupled with logging did not modify the OM increase due to fire, while the lowest increase was measured in the logged but non-mulched areas. Mulched and non-logged soils maintained high OM and TN one year after fire, but also in areas that were treated with logging (with or without mulching) these parameters were significantly higher compared to the unburned areas. Mulching increased the species richness and evenness, especially when itis carried out without logging, in comparison to the unburned areas. Logging without mulching did not exert negative impacts on plant biodiversity, whose species richness increased and evenness was unvaried compared to the burned and unburned areas. The results of this study can provide land managers easy to measure tools such as soil respiration and plant diversity, which can serve to assess and evaluate the effectiveness of management measures that are taken post-forest fire in order to conserve the delicate ecosystems of the Mediterranean forests. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil and Plant Restoration after Wildfire)

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Open AccessEssay

Changes in the Potential Habitat Distribution of Typical Fire-Resistant Forest Species under Climate Change in the Subtropical Regions of China

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Forests 2023, 14(9), 1897; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14091897 - 18 Sep 2023

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Abstract

Ecological fire prevention forest belts can effectively alleviate the spread of forest fires and reduce the harm caused by forest fires. Exploring the distribution and changes in suitable growth areas for fire-resistant forest species under the effects of climate change can provide effective references for the introduction of ecological fire prevention and tree species preservation in the region. This study is based on the distribution data of six typical ecological fire prevention forest species in the subtropical regions of China. The maximum entropy model (MaxEnt), optimized by the ENMeval data package, was used to analyze the potential relationship between the ecological environment variables and fire prevention forest species. The potential distribution of certain tree species in the historical period and in future periods is simulated. In addition, the area changes, migration trends, and stable areas of tree species under climate change are also discussed. The research results indicated the following: (1) The AUC values of the optimized model are all higher than 0.9, indicating the optimal prediction results. (2) The climate variables that have the greatest impact on the suitable habitat of Schima superba were the annual mean temperature, precipitation of the driest month, and mean diurnal range. Quercus glauca was mainly influenced by the minimum temperature of the coldest month and the precipitation of the warmest quarter. Castanopsis eyrei was mainly influenced by the precipitation of the driest month and the annual precipitation. The distribution of suitable growth areas for Symplocos sumuntia is mainly influenced by the precipitation of the driest month. The distribution of Camellia oleifera was influenced by the minimum temperature of the coldest month. The potential habitat distribution of Photinia serratifolia was greatly influenced by annual precipitation. (3) Until 2090, the expansion degree of the suitable growth area will be Symplocos sumuntia (51.05%) > Schima superba (19.41%) > Camellia oleifera (10.14%) > Quercus glauca (6.80%) > Castanopsis eyrei (2.34%) > Photinia serratifolia (−6.97%). (4) The centroid of Schima superba will migrate northward. Quercus glauca will migrate northeast. The suitable areas for the migration of Symplocos sumuntia and Castanopsis eyrei will move in a northwest direction, with repeated changes in alum migration, as well as with the largest migration span for Castanopsis eyrei. In addition, Camellia oleifera will move southwest. The centroid of Photinia serratifolia will migrate to the southeast. (5) The six fire-resistant tree species in this study were noted to have excellent stability in Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangdong, and Guangxi. This conclusion can provide an effective reference for the introduction of ecological fire prevention tree species and the protection of tree species under climate change in subtropical forest-fire-prone areas in China. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil and Plant Restoration after Wildfire)

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