Abstract

The ecosystem response to fire is often linked to fire severity and recurrence, with potentially large consequences on both aboveground and below- ground processes. Understanding the fire impact has become increasingly important in the light of recent changes to disturbance regimes due to climate change. Although the impacts on the above vegetation and the below soil physical and chemical properties are well documented, it remains unclear how fire affects the fine-scale microorganisms. Microbial communities are responsible for driving essential ecosystem processes and particularly sensitive to changes induced in soil quality by wildfire or prescribed fire disturbances. This work is a review of the last three years' literature, dealing with the fire impact on mass, activity, and diversity of soil microorganisms from soil A horizon.

Keywords

Wildfires; Prescribed fire; Severity; Microbial biomass; Activity and diversity; Short-, medium, and long-term effects

Published in

Current Opinion in Environmental Science & Health
2021, Volume: 22, article number: 100264
Publisher: ELSEVIER

SLU Authors

• Barreiro, Ana

  • Department of Biosystems and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Microbiology


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coesh.2021.100264

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/123244