Investigation of natural resilience capacity of soil features affected by low severity ground wildfire after three years in Mediterranean forest ecosystem

Year 2019, Volume: 7 Issue: 2, 145 - 156, 20.08.2019

Turgay Dindaroğlu Fatma Turan

https://doi.org/10.31195/ejejfs.568734

Cited By: 1

Abstract

Wildfires are one of the succession
dynamics in the ecosystem, however forest ecosystems have natural resilience
capacity to combat with natural disturbance regimes depend on local ecologic
properties. This study was conducted to evaluate natural resilience capacity
status of the soil’s physical, chemical and hydrological features exposed to
low severity ground wildfire after three years in the Bulutoglu village,
Kahramanmaras. Particle size distribution, soil reaction (pH), electrical
conductivity (EC), organic matter content (OM), dispersion ratio (DR), moisture
content (MC), field capacity (FC), colloid/moisture equivalent (CM), particle
density (PD), bulk density (BD) and porosity ratio (PR) analysis were performed
on two groups of soils (burned and unburned counterpart). The environmental
sensitivity index (ESI) include soil, vegetation, climate, and management
quality of the study area was determined by MEDALUS methodology.

According to the results, there is no
environmental sensitivity in the study area. It was determined that the
negative effects of soil properties improved significantly after three years
from the wildfire except for the PR and BD values. There was no statistically
significant difference between the analyzed two soil samples groups. It was
concluded that the difference between the bulk density and porosity ratios
is not only due to the effects of the fire but also with grazing pressure,
especially on the unburned area. According to the results, the burned area suffered from low severity ground
wildfire has substantially been naturally rehabilitated itself within three years. Environmentally sensitivity (ESI) of the
study area was a play an important role in the recovery of soil features.
Additionally recommended
avoiding some activities that will compress the soil for increasing natural
resilience capacity after a wildfire.

Keywords

Ground wildfire, Soil ecology, Resilience capacity, Fire ecology

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