Porto Paolo, Callegari Giovanni
Dipartimento di Agraria, Università Degli Studi Mediterranea, Località Feo di Vito, Reggio Calabria, Italy; CNR - Istituto per i Sistemi Agricoli e Forestali Del Mediterraneo, Sezione Ecologia e Idrologia Forestale, Rende (CS), Italy.
CNR - Istituto per i Sistemi Agricoli e Forestali Del Mediterraneo, Sezione Ecologia e Idrologia Forestale, Rende (CS), Italy.
Appl Radiat Isot. 2021 Jun;172:109668. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2021.109668. Epub 2021 Mar 6.
The destruction of forest cover by wildfires has important consequences on the stability of forest ecosystems. It is well recognized that forests play a key role in regulating the hydrological cycle by modifying rainfall interception and evapotranspiration but also affecting hydrological and erosion responses of the soil surface. For these reasons, in areas devoted to forestry, wildfires can cause loss of biomass production and serious off-site problems related to overland flow and the amount of sediment delivered downstream. Quantifying the consequences caused by wildfires on the soil surface in terms of runoff and soil loss is a great challenge for scientists and foresters. In this paper, a plot experiment aimed at evaluating the effects on soil erosion by wildfires of different severity is firstly described. The experiment was carried out in 1999 in three small plots, located in Southern Italy, covered by pine trees planted in the early '60s. The results obtained from this experiment provided evidence of a short-time effect of wildfire on soil erosion. However, the normal conditions of the pre-fire period seemed to be re-established after a few months following fire. In order to explore possible long-term effects on soil loss, estimates of soil erosion provided by recent Cs measurements carried out in the same plots were made. The overall results indicated, for the study area, the absence of a long-term effect on soil erosion caused by the passage of fire and suggested that the Cs technique can be a useful tool to explore the effect of wildfires in forested ecosystems.
野火对森林覆盖的破坏对森林生态系统的稳定性具有重要影响。人们普遍认识到，森林在调节水文循环方面发挥着关键作用，它不仅能改变降雨截留和蒸散，还会影响土壤表面的水文和侵蚀反应。基于这些原因，在林业区域，野火会导致生物量生产损失以及与地表径流和下游输沙量相关的严重场外问题。对科学家和林业工作者来说，量化野火对土壤表面造成的径流和土壤流失后果是一项巨大挑战。本文首先描述了一项旨在评估不同严重程度野火对土壤侵蚀影响的小区试验。该试验于1999年在意大利南部的三个小区进行，这些小区在60年代初种植了松树。从该试验获得的结果证明了野火对土壤侵蚀的短期影响。然而，火灾发生后的几个月内，似乎重新恢复了火灾前的正常状况。为了探究对土壤流失可能的长期影响，对同一小区近期进行的铯测量提供的土壤侵蚀估计值进行了分析。总体结果表明，对于研究区域而言，火灾的发生对土壤侵蚀没有长期影响，并表明铯技术可以作为探索森林生态系统中野火影响的有用工具。
