Long and Short-Term Effects of Fire on Soil Charcoal of a Conifer Forest in Southwest Oregon

Forests

Melissa R. A. Pingree¹  Peter S. Homann¹  Brett Morrissette² 

[1] Huxley College of the Environment, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA 98225, USA;Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA;

关键词: Biscuit Wildfire;    black carbon;    charcoal;    wildfire;    peroxide-acid digestion;    pre- and post-fire measurement;    soil carbon;    soil change;   

DOI  :  10.3390/f3020353

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

In 2002, the Biscuit Wildfire burned a portion of the previously established, replicated conifer unthinned and thinned experimental units of the Siskiyou Long-Term Ecosystem Productivity (LTEP) experiment, southwest Oregon. Charcoal C in pre and post-fire O horizon and mineral soil was quantified by physical separation and a peroxide-acid digestion method. The abrupt, short-term fire event caused O horizon charcoal C to increase by a factor of ten to >200 kg C ha⁻¹. The thinned wildfire treatment produced less charcoal C than unthinned wildfire and thinned prescribed fire treatments. The charcoal formation rate was 1 to 8% of woody fuels consumed, and this percentage was negatively related to woody fuels consumed, resulting in less charcoal formation with greater fire severity. Charcoal C averaged 2000 kg ha⁻¹ in 0–3 cm mineral soil and may have decreased as a result of fire, coincident with convective or erosive loss of mineral soil. Charcoal C in 3–15 cm mineral soil was stable at 5500 kg C ha⁻¹. Long-term soil C sequestration in the Siskiyou LTEP soils is greatly influenced by the contribution of charcoal C, which makes up 20% of mineral soil organic C. This research reiterates the importance of fire to soil C in a southwestern Oregon coniferous forest ecosystem.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2012 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.