Responses in Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Fractionation after Prescribed Burning in the Montseny Biosphere Reserve (NE Iberian Peninsula)

Sangita Chowdhury, José Manjón-Cabeza, Mercedes Ibáñez, Christian Mestre, Maria José Broncano, María Rosa Mosquera-Losada, Josefina Plaixats and M.-Teresa Sebastià
Additional contact information
Sangita Chowdhury: Group GAMES, Department HBJ, School of Agrifood and Forestry Science and Engineering (ETSEA), University of Lleida (UdL), 25198 Lleida, Spain
José Manjón-Cabeza: Group GAMES, Department HBJ, School of Agrifood and Forestry Science and Engineering (ETSEA), University of Lleida (UdL), 25198 Lleida, Spain
Mercedes Ibáñez: Group GAMES, Department HBJ, School of Agrifood and Forestry Science and Engineering (ETSEA), University of Lleida (UdL), 25198 Lleida, Spain
Christian Mestre: Group GAMES, Department HBJ, School of Agrifood and Forestry Science and Engineering (ETSEA), University of Lleida (UdL), 25198 Lleida, Spain
Maria José Broncano: Grup de Recerca en Remugants, Departament de Ciència Animal i dels Aliments, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain
María Rosa Mosquera-Losada: Department of Crop Production and Engineering Projects, High Polytechnic School, University of Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Lugo, Spain
Josefina Plaixats: Grup de Recerca en Remugants, Departament de Ciència Animal i dels Aliments, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain
M.-Teresa Sebastià: Group GAMES, Department HBJ, School of Agrifood and Forestry Science and Engineering (ETSEA), University of Lleida (UdL), 25198 Lleida, Spain

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 7, 1-14

Abstract: Prescribed fire is one of the most widely-used management tools to recover encroached rangelands. Fire has been reported to cause changes in the soil physical and chemical properties. However, the legacy effects of former plant species on soil responses to fire remains unknown. The legacy effect of the former extant plant species on soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) fractionation distribution after prescribed burning in topsoil (0–5 cm and 5–10 cm) was investigated in Mediterranean shrublands in Montseny. We sampled soils under five vegetation patch types: Cytisus scoparius L., Calluna vulgaris L., Erica arborea L., Pteridium aquilinum L., and Cladonia biocrusts, pre- and post-burning. Multivariate analysis on soil C and N fractions showed that soils under the legume Cytisus and the biocrust were the most differentiated. Vegetation patch types tended to respond differently to burning, soils under Cytisus , Cladonia and Calluna showing the strongest response. Total C and N, and C and N in sand decreased after burning in the 0–5 cm soil layer. Conversely, C in silt, as well as N in clay and silt, increased with soil depth after burning. This study will be helpful for understanding ecological legacy effects and their possible consequences when planning prescribed burning.

Keywords: prescribed burning; soil particle size fractions; plant species-fire interactions; Cytisus scoparius; Calluna vulgaris; biocrusts (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/7/4232/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/7/4232/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:7:p:4232-:d:785927

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().