Insect Outbreak and Long-Term Post-Fire Effects on Soil Erosion in Mediterranean Suburban Forest

Aristeidis Kastridis, Dimitrios Stathis, Marios Sapountzis and Georgios Theodosiou
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Aristeidis Kastridis: Laboratory of Mountainous Water Management and Control, School of Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Dimitrios Stathis: Laboratory of Mountainous Water Management and Control, School of Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Marios Sapountzis: Laboratory of Mountainous Water Management and Control, School of Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Georgios Theodosiou: School of Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 6, 1-15

Abstract: Our study was conducted in the suburban forest of Thessaloniki (Seich Sou), which constitutes one of the most significant suburban forests of Greece and is located northeast of Thessaloniki. In 1997, more than the half of the forest area was destroyed by a wildfire, while recently (May 2019), a significant insect outbreak by the bark beetle Tomicus piniperda was detected. The insect action still goes on, while the infestation has destroyed so far more than 300 ha of forest area. Extensive selective logging and removal of infected trees from the forest were carried out in order to mitigate and restrict the outbreak spread. In the current study, silt-fenced erosion plots were installed on representative locations of disturbed (by fire and insect action) and undisturbed areas, in order to quantify the effect of the above-mentioned forest disturbances on soil erosion and correlate the height and intensity of precipitation with the soil erosion rate. The results show that there was no statistically significant increase in soil erosion in the areas of insect outbreak compared with the control plots. However, there was a statistically significant increase in soil erosion in areas where logging works had been applied as an infestation preventive measure. In addition, the study revealed that 25 years after the forest fire, the erosion rate is still at higher level compared with the undisturbed forest areas. This study could be considered as one of the first attempts to evaluate the impact of an insect outbreak infestation on soil erosion, while there is also a great lack of information concerning the assessment of long-term post-fire effects on the soil erosion of a forest ecosystem.

Keywords: bark beetle; erosion control; forest fire; insect; infestation; logging; rainfall; rill erosion; Tomicus piniperda (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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