Impacts of two spatially and temporally isolated anthropogenic fire events on soils of oak-dominated Zagros forests of Iran

Impacts of two spatially and temporally isolated anthropogenic fire events on soils of oak-dominated Zagros forests of Iran

Anthropogenic fires have varying effects on the oak-dominated forests of the Zagros Mountains in western Iran. The objective of this project was to investigate the effects of fire on various components of soil. For this purpose three homogeneous and neighboring sites were inspected. Site A was the unburned control. Sites B and C experienced fires about 2 and 8 years prior to the study, respectively. In comparison to the control, site B showed a decline in organic matter content (1.69 ± 0.24 vs. 1.13 ± 0.17), N amount (0.40 ± 0.05 vs. 0.19 ± 0.03), litter depth (1.20 ± 0.214 cm vs. 0.087 ± 0.044 cm), germinated seedlings (272 ± 40 vs. 75 ± 25), earthworm biomass (3.4 g/kg vs. 0.26 g/kg), and plant diversity (1.95 ± 0.30 vs. 1.35 ± 0.34). An increase was observed for pH (7.41 ± 0.11 vs. 7.72 ± 0.15), Ca (569.09 ± 34 vs. 855 ± 38.17), bulk density (1.17 ± 0.05 vs. 1.66 ± 0.18), the number of arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) spores, and stump sprouting (1645 ± 533 and 3425 ± 491). Site C showed a similar decrease in organic matter content, N amount, litter depth, germinated seedlings, and earthworm biomass. However, plant diversity was greatly increased at site C, demonstrating that the conditions were better for plant life 8 years after the fire event. Thus, the number of germinated seedlings was lower than that of the control, while stump sprouting (4170 ± 452 per ha) was the greatest. The AM spore count was higher at site B in comparison to site C, indicating that fire had caused a long-term loss in this essential component of the soil. An increase in pH was a characteristic feature of the burnt sites. Levels of macronutrient K were greatly increased at site C. In fact, K content was much higher than the other two sites (A, B, and C: 51.81 ± 3.69, 59.75 ± 8.18, and 72.55 ± 20.66, respectively), indicating that increased K content is a long-term effect of fire. Bulk density (1.80 ± 0.14) increased at site C, which may be due to the insufficient earthworm biomass. Thus, 8 years were not enough to improve the soil conditions for soil fauna.

___

  • Ahlgren IF, Ahlgren CE (1965). Effects of prescribed burning on soil microorganisms in a Minnesota jack pine forest. Ecology 46: 304–310.
  • Amaranthus MP (1989). Effect of grass seeding and fertilizing on surface erosion on intensely burned sites in south-western Oregon. In: Proceedings of the Symposium on Fire and Watershed Management. USDA Forest Service Technical Report PSW-109. Berkeley, CA: US Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station, pp. 147–149.
  • Aref IM, Atta HA, Ghamade AR (2011). Effect of forest fires on tree diversity and some soil properties. Inte J Agr Biol 13: 659–664.
  • Arocena JM, Opio C (2003). Prescribed fire-induced changes in properties of sub-boreal forest soils. Geoderma 113: 1–16.
  • Boerner RE (1982). Fire and nutrient cycling in temperate ecosystems. Biol Sci 32: 187–192.
  • Boerner REC, Hart S, Huang J (2009). Impacts of fire and fire surrogate treatments on forest soil properties: a meta-analytical approach. Ecol Appl 19: 338–358.
  • Bremner JM (1996). Nitrogen—total. In: Sparks DL, editor. Methods of Soil Analysis, Part 3 – Chemical Methods. Madison, WI, USA: Soil Science Society of America, pp. 1085–1123.
  • Callaham MA, Blair JM, Todd TC, Kitchen DJ, Whiles MR (2003). Macroinvertebrates in North American tall grass prairie soils: effects of fire, mowing, and fertilization on density and biomass. Soil Biol Biochem 35: 1079–1093.
  • Cerdà A, Doerr SH (2008). The effect of ash and needle cover on surface runoff and erosion in the immediate post-fire period. Catena 74: 256–263.
  • Certini G (2005). Effect of fire on properties of soil – A review. Oecologia 143: 1–10.
  • Coroi M, Skeffington MS, Giller P, Smith C, Gormally M, O’Donovan G (2004). Vegetation diversity and stand structure in streamside forests in the south of Ireland. Forest Ecol Manag 202: 39–57.
  • DeBano LF (1990). The effect of forest fire on soil properties. In: Proceedings of the Symposium on Management and Productivity of Western-Montane Forest Soils, 10–12 April 1990; Boise, ID, USA. Ogden, UT, USA: USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, pp. 151–156.
  • DeBano LF (2000). The role of fire and soil heating on water repellency in wild land environments: a review. J Hydrol 231– 232: 195–206.
  • DeBano LF, Neary DG, Folliott PF (2005). Chapter 2: Soil physical properties. In: Neary DG, Ryan KC, DeBano LF, editors. Wildland Fire in Ecosystems: Effects of Fire on Soil and Water. Ogden, UT, USA: USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, pp. 29–51.
  • Deka HK, Mishra RR (1983). The effect of slash burning on soil microflora. Plant Soil 73: 167–175.
  • Dhillion SS, Andersen RC, Liberta AE (1988). Effect of fire on the mycorrhizal ecology of little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium). Can J Bot 66: 706–713.
  • Dunn PH, DeBano LF, Eberlein GE (1979). Effects of burning on chaparral soils: II Soil microbes and nitrogen mineralization. Soil Sci Soc Am J 43: 509–514.
  • Edwards CA, Bohlen PJ (1996). Biology and Ecology of Earthworms. 3rd ed. London, UK: Chapman and Hall.
  • Fernandez I, Cabaneiro A, Carballas T (1997). Organic matter changes immediately after a wildfire in an atlantics forest soil and comparison with laboratory soil heating. Soil Biol Biochem 29: 1–11.
  • Fisher RF, Binkley D (2000). Ecology and management of forest soils. 3rd ed. New York, NY, USA: Wiley.
  • Giovannini G, Lucchesi S, Giachetti M (1988). Effects of heating on some physical and chemical parameters related to soil aggregation and erodibility. Soil Sci 146: 255–261.
  • Hart SC, DeLuca TH, Newman GS (2005). Post-fire vegetative dynamics as drivers of microbial community structure and function in forest soils. Forest Ecol Manag 220: 166–184.
  • Hutchinson TF, Sutherland EK, Yaussy DA (2005). Effects of repeated prescribed fires on the structure, composition, and regeneration of mixed-oak forests in Ohio. Forest Ecol Manag 218: 210–228.
  • Johnson EA (1992). Fire and Vegetation Dynamics: Studies From the North American Boral Forest. London, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  • Joshi N, Dabral M, Maikhuri RK (2010). Density, biomass and species richness of earthworms in agro-ecosystems of Garhwal Himalaya, India. Trop Natur Hist 10: 171–179.
  • Kaiser HF (1958). The Varimax criterion for analytic rotation in factor analysis. Psychometrika 23: 187–200.
  • Kalra P, Maynard DG (1991). Methods Manual for Forest Soil and Plant Analysis. Information Report NOR-X-319. Edmonton, AB, Canada: Forestry Canada.
  • Knight H (1996). Loss of nitrogen from the forest floor by burning. Forest Chron 42: 149–152.
  • Kumar M, Sheikh MA, Bhat JA, Bussmann RW (2013). Effect of fire on soil nutrients and under story vegetation in Chir pine forest in Garhwal Himalaya, India. Acta Ecol Sin 33: 59–63.
  • León J, Seeger M, Badía D, Peters P, Echeverría MT (2013). Thermal shock and splash effects on burned gypseous soils from the Ebro Basin. Solid Earth Discuss 5: 1817–1844.
  • Martin-Pinto P, Vaquerizo H, Penalver F, Olaizola J, OriadeRueda JA (2005). Early effects of a wildfire on the diversity and production of fungal communities in Mediterranean vegetation types dominated by Cistus ladanifer and Pinus pinaster in Spain. Forest Ecol Manag 225: 296–305.
  • Mataix-Solera J, Guerrero C, García-Orenes F, Bárcenas GM, Torres MP (2009). Forest fire effects on soil microbiology. In: Cerdà A, Robichaud PR, editors. Fire Effects on Soils and Restoration Strategies. Enfield, NH, USA: Science Publishers, pp. 133–175.
  • McLean EO (1982). Soil pH and lime requirement. In: Page AL, editor. Methods of Soil Analysis, Part 2 – Chemical and Microbiological Properties. Madison, WI, USA: Soil Science Society of America, pp. 199–224.
  • Mirzaei J, Akbarinia M, Hoseini SM, Tabari M, Jalali G (2007). Comparison of natural regenerated woody species in relation to physiographic and soil factors in Zagros forests (Case study: Arghavan reservoir in north of Ilam province). Pajou and Sazan 77: 16–23 (in Persian).
  • Molina M, Fuentes R, Calderón R (2007). Impact of forest fire ash on surface charge characteristics of Andisols. Soil Sci 172: 820–834.
  • Naeem S, Thompson LJ, Lawler SP, Lawton JH, Woodfin RM (1994). Declining biodiversity can alter performance of ecosystems. Nature 268: 734–737.
  • Nagendra H (2002). Tenure and forest conditions: community forestry in the Nepal Terai. Environ Conserv 29: 530–539.
  • Neary DG, Klopatek CC, DeBano LF (1999). Fire effects on belowground sustainability: a review and synthesis. Forest Ecol Manag 122: 51–71.
  • Neff J, Harden J, Gleixner G (2005). Fire effects on soil organic matter content, composition, and nutrients in boreal interior Alaska. Can J Forest Res 35: 2178–2187.
  • Norouzi M, Ramezanpour H (2013). Effect of fire on chemical forms of iron and manganese in forest soils of Iran. Envi Forensics 14: 169–177.
  • Novara A, Gristina L, Rühl J, Pasta S, D’Angelo G, La Mantia T, Pereira P (2013). Grassland fire effect on soil organic carbon reservoirs in semiarid environment. Solid Earth Discuss 5: 883–895.
  • Raison RJ, Khanna PK, Woods PV (1985). Mechanisms of element transfer to the atmosphere during vegetation fires. Can J Forest Res 15: 132–140.
  • Rashid A, Ahmed T Ayub N, Khan AG (1997). Effect of forest fire on number, viability and post-fire re-establishment of arbuscular mycorrhizae. Mycorrhiza 7: 217–220.
  • Reeder CJ, Jurgensen MF (1979). Fire-induced water repellency in forest soils of upper Michigan. Can J For Res 9: 369–373.
  • Safford HD, Harrison S (2004). Fire effects on plant diversity in serpentine vs. sandstone chaparral. Ecology 85: 539–548.
  • Sahajo BH (1999). Effects of fire on the properties of soils in Acacia mangium plantations in South Sumatra, Indonesia. J Trop Forest Sci 11: 459–460.
  • Schafer JL, Mack MC (2010). Short-term effects of fire on soil and plant nutrients. Plant Soil 334: 433–447.
  • Scharenbroch BC, Nix B, Jacobs KA, Bowles ML (2012). Two decades of low-severity prescribed fire increases soil nutrient availability in a Midwestern, USA oak (Quercus) forest. Geoderma 183–184: 80–91.
  • Seki K, Suzuki K, Nishimura T, Mizoguchi M, Imoto H, Miyazaki T (2010). Physical and chemical properties of soils in the fireaffected forest of east Kalimantan, Indonesia. J Trop Forest Sci 22: 414–424.
  • Sewerniak P, Gonet SS, Bozejewicz M (2011). Impact of a forest regeneration method used after fire on some soil properties. In: Proceedings of the 3rd International Meeting of Fire Effects on Soil Properties, 15–19 March 2011; Guimarães, Portugal. Guimarães, Portugal: University of Minho.
  • Seymour G, Tecle A (2004). Impact of slash pile size and burning on ponderosa pine forest soil physical properties. J ArizonaNevada Acad Sci 37: 74–82.
  • Sharma S (1996). Applied Multivariate Techniques. New York, NY, USA: Wiley.
  • Theodorou C, Bowen GD (1982). Effects of a bushfire on the microbiology of a South Australian low open dry sclerophyll forest soil. Aust Forest Res 12: 317–327.
  • Tiwari VK, Rai B (1977). Effect of soil burning on microfungi. Plant Soil 47: 693–697.
  • Tufekcioglu A, Kucuk M, Bilgili E (2010). Soil properties and root biomass responses to prescribed burning in young Corsican pine (Pinus nigra Arn.) stands. J Environ Biol 31: 369–373.
  • Verma S, Jayakumar S (2012). Impact of forest fire on physical, chemical and biological properties of soil: a review. Int Acad Ecol Environ Sci 2: 168–176.
  • Walkle A, Black IA (1934). An examination of Degtjareff method for determining soil organic matter and a proposed modification of the chromic acid titration method. Soil Sci 37: 29–37.
  • Watanabe FS, Olsen SR (1965). Test of an ascorbic acid method for determining phosphorus in water and NaHCO extracts from soil. Soil Sci Soc Am J 29: 677–678.
  • Widden P, Parkinson D (1975). The effects of a forest fire on soil microfungi. Soil Biol Bioch 7: 125–138.