Continuous Monitoring of Soil Respiration After a Prescribed Fire: Seasonal Variations in CO 2 Efflux

María C. Romero-Toribio, Elena Angulo, Ramón C. Soriguer, Javier Madrigal, Francisco Senra-Rivero, Xim Cerdá and Joaquín Cobos ()
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María C. Romero-Toribio: Estación Biológica de Doñana (CSIC), Avenida Americo Vespucio 26, Isla de la Cartuja, 41092 Sevilla, Spain
Elena Angulo: Estación Biológica de Doñana (CSIC), Avenida Americo Vespucio 26, Isla de la Cartuja, 41092 Sevilla, Spain
Ramón C. Soriguer: Estación Biológica de Doñana (CSIC), Avenida Americo Vespucio 26, Isla de la Cartuja, 41092 Sevilla, Spain
Javier Madrigal: Instituto de Ciencias Forestales (ICIFOR-INIA), CSIC, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Francisco Senra-Rivero: Agencia de Medio Ambiente y Agua de Andalucía, INFOCA, Junta de Andalucía, 41092 Sevilla, Spain
Xim Cerdá: Estación Biológica de Doñana (CSIC), Avenida Americo Vespucio 26, Isla de la Cartuja, 41092 Sevilla, Spain
Joaquín Cobos: Estación Biológica de Doñana (CSIC), Avenida Americo Vespucio 26, Isla de la Cartuja, 41092 Sevilla, Spain

Land, 2024, vol. 13, issue 10, 1-16

Abstract: Prescribed burns have recently become a widespread environmental management practice for biodiversity restoration to reduce fuel load, to provide forest fire suppression operational opportunities, to favor plant recruitment or to manage wild species. Prescribed fires were again applied in Doñana National Park (southern Spain) after decades of non-intervention regarding fire use. Here, we assessed their impacts on the soil CO 2 effluxes over two years after burning to test the hypothesis that if the ecosystem is resilient, soil respiration will have a rapid recovery to the conditions previous to the fire. Using soil automated CO 2 flux chambers to continuously measure respiration in burned and unburned sites, we showed that soil respiration varies among seasons but only showed significant differences between burned and unburned plots in the fall season one year after fire, which corresponded with the end of the dry season. Comparing soil respiration values from the burned plots in the three fall seasons studied, soil respiration increased significantly in the fall one year after fire, but decreased in the following fall to the values of the control plots. This study highlights the resilience of soil respiration after prescribed fire, showing the potential benefits of prescribed fire to reduce catastrophic wildfires, especially in protected areas subjected to non-intervention.

Keywords: low-intensity burn; prescribed fire; soil pore degasification; automated LI-COR 8100 chambers; Mediterranean ecosystem; Donaña National Park (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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