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Fire
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Post-fire Effects on Environment
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Post-fire Effects on Environment

A special issue of Fire (ISSN 2571-6255).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2024 | Viewed by 5920

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Joji Abraham

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Applied Science, Federation University Australia, Ballarat, Australia
Interests: forest fire; wildfire; soil properties; water quality; air quality

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Massive fires, specifically wildfires, are considered amongst the distressing ecological catastrophe that occurs around the globe because of their fierce nature, extensive property and forest damage caused, debris deposition, the threat to human and animal lives, and massive economic loss caused, including the significant impacts on the climate and various compartments of the environment. This is considered a key ecosystem modifier affecting the physical, chemical, and biological properties of the forest soil and the surface water quantity and quality. Compared to low-intensity fires, high-intensity wildfires with complete combustion of organic matter generate severe, negative impacts on the environment in tropical, temperate, and boreal areas. Fires affects the pH, organic matter content, nutrient availability, cation exchange capacity, texture, bulk density, aggregate stability, water repellency, and the microbial community in the soil and alters the hydrological balance. Even though the quality is reduced in many areas depending on the intensity and duration of the fire, the quantity of post-fire streamflow is significantly enhanced. The fires also affect the snow packs, sediment load, and metal content in the surface water systems, apart from air pollution and ozone production. The impacts of fire smoke on wildlife such as carbon monoxide poisoning, respiratory distress, and cardiovascular disease have already been identified. In general, we can say fires significantly influence the environment. Ongoing climate change, caused by current global warming, coupled with anthropogenic activities, create higher temperatures and prolonged droughts that exacerbate the incidence and severity of fires in the fire regimes, significantly affecting the environment. This highlights the significance of investigating the impacts of fire on all the compartments of the environment. 

We are pleased to invite you to submit a paper for the Journal of Fire for a special issue entitled “Post-fire Effects on Environment”. Both Research and Review papers are welcome for possible publication in this issue. This special issue is being edited by: Dr. Joji Abraham, Federation University/Tronox Mining Australia. The topics of interest for this issue include:

  • Impacts of fire on the soil
  • Impacts of fire on the surface water system (streams, lakes, and rivers)
  • Impacts of fire on the potable water quality
  • Impacts of fire on estuaries and coastal areas, and
  • Impacts of fire on the air quality

I look forward to receiving your contribution.

Dr. Joji Abraham
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Fire is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • air quality
  • climate change
  • controlled fire
  • ecosystem
  • forest ecology
  • forest fire
  • global warming
  • prescribed burn
  • soil properties
  • water quality
  • wildfire

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 2330 KiB  
Article
Species-Abundance Models for the Early Postfire Succession of Subalpine Shrub Grassland
by Wei Wang, Min-Chun Liao and Hsy-Yu Tzeng
Fire 2024, 7(1), 21; https://doi.org/10.3390/fire7010021 - 05 Jan 2024
Viewed by 1398
Abstract
Fire is one of the principal factors influencing subalpine ecosystem succession. Species numbers and plant compositions are used to determine postfire disturbance, vegetation, structural change, and succession. Ecologists also integrate species diversity and mathematical models to enable researchers to obtain increasingly detailed insights [...] Read more.
Fire is one of the principal factors influencing subalpine ecosystem succession. Species numbers and plant compositions are used to determine postfire disturbance, vegetation, structural change, and succession. Ecologists also integrate species diversity and mathematical models to enable researchers to obtain increasingly detailed insights into habitats during post-disturbance restoration processes. This study employed five species-abundance models, namely the niche preemption model, the broken-stick model, the log-normal model, the Zipf model, and the Zipf–Mandelbrot model, to perform fitting analysis on the abundance data of postfire species coverage in shrub grasslands near 369 Hut at Xue Mountain in Shei-Pa National Park, Taiwan. We performed the logarithmic transformation on plant-coverage areas for each period of postfire shrub-grassland succession, and then, based on histograms drawn for species–coverage distribution modes, the test results consistently showed normal distributions (p < 0.05). Species-coverage histograms measuring various periods showed that there were comparatively higher numbers of common species during postfire succession and that the numbers of rare species progressively increased. The fitting results of the five species-abundance models showed that although the most suitable abundance models for each period of postfire succession varied, the majority of these periods demonstrated decent fitting with respect to the Zipf–Mandelbrot model. These findings showed that fuel consumption provided nutrients in a manner that facilitated postfire regeneration. Moreover, dominant species, such as Yushania niitakayamensis, and Miscanthus transmorrisonensis, did not fully occupy growing spaces and resource availabilities; consequently, seeded species were able to grow. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Post-fire Effects on Environment)
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14 pages, 2885 KiB  
Article
Hyperspectral Reflectance and Chemical Composition of Pre- and Post-Fire Soils from Three 2021 Western USA Megafires
by Yasaman Raeofy, Vera Samburova, Markus Berli, Brad Sion and Hans Moosmüller
Fire 2023, 6(12), 471; https://doi.org/10.3390/fire6120471 - 16 Dec 2023
Viewed by 1471
Abstract
Over the past two decades, wildfire activity in the western USA has increased, especially in California. Wildfires not only affect air quality but also the environment at large, including chemical and physical properties of fire-affected soils, which are of great interest for prediction [...] Read more.
Over the past two decades, wildfire activity in the western USA has increased, especially in California. Wildfires not only affect air quality but also the environment at large, including chemical and physical properties of fire-affected soils, which are of great interest for prediction and mitigation of hydrological consequences. Hyperspectral reflectance can be used to remotely assess the effects of fires on soil and here we use it to characterize soils before and after three 2021 California wildfires (Dixie, Beckwourth Complex, and Caldor fire). We acquired reflectance spectra and compared changes in these spectra with changes in the chemistry of analyzed soils. For all three fires, the results show that 700 nm wavelength reflectance of ash samples collected 1 and 1.5 years after fire decreased between 36% and 76% compared to that of samples collected right after the fires. Additionally, significantly higher visible reflectance has been found for unburned compared to burned soil samples in each region that was studied. Infrared transmission measurements were used to characterize the carbonate content of soil and ash samples demonstrating a mostly positive relationship between carbonate content and visible reflectance, indicating a possible cause and effect between the two. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Post-fire Effects on Environment)
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13 pages, 1961 KiB  
Article
Inter-Month Nutrients Dynamic and Plant Growth in Calamagrostis angustifolia Community and Soil after Different Burning Seasons
by Ziyang Xu, Hongmei Zhao, Guoping Wang, Jinxin Cong, Dongxue Han, Long Sun and Chuanyu Gao
Fire 2023, 6(10), 405; https://doi.org/10.3390/fire6100405 - 20 Oct 2023
Viewed by 1222
Abstract
Presently, as human activity and climate warming gradually increase, straw burning leads to more accidental burning in neighbouring wetlands, which threatens wetland carbon stores. Plants are important carbon fixers in wetlands, converting carbon dioxide to biomass through photosynthesis and releasing carbon into the [...] Read more.
Presently, as human activity and climate warming gradually increase, straw burning leads to more accidental burning in neighbouring wetlands, which threatens wetland carbon stores. Plants are important carbon fixers in wetlands, converting carbon dioxide to biomass through photosynthesis and releasing carbon into the soil as plants die off. Nitrogen and phosphorus limitation in wetlands is a key factor affecting plant growth, and different burning seasons have different effects on mitigating this limitation. To further elucidate the effects of nitrogen and phosphorus distribution on wetland inter-month nutrient dynamics after different burning seasons, we selected a Calamagrostis angustifolia wetland in the Sanjiang Plain that was burned in spring and autumn, respectively, and conducted a monthly survey from May to September. We found that the leaf nitrogen content in September at spring burning sites was 3.59 ± 2.69 g/kg, which was significantly lower than that in July, while the difference at the unburned sites was only 0.60 ± 3.72 g/kg, and after the autumn burning, soil nitrogen and phosphorus contents remained higher than at the unburned sites in August, being 0.55 ± 1.74 g/kg and 0.06 ± 0.12 g/kg, respectively. Our results indicate that spring burning immediately increased the nitrogen and phosphorus contents in soil and plants but that these effects only lasted for a short time, until June. In comparison, autumn burning had a long-term effect on soil nitrogen and phosphorus levels and significantly increased the aboveground biomass. Thus, we recommend that conducting autumn burning before the commencement of agricultural burning not only reduces combustible accumulation to prevent fires but also promotes nitrogen and phosphorus cycling in wetlands, and the increase in plant biomass after autumn burning also enhances the carbon fixation capacity of the wetland. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Post-fire Effects on Environment)
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24 pages, 2317 KiB  
Article
Identification Methodology for Chemical Warehouses Dealing with Flammable Substances Capable of Causing Firewater Pollution
by Maxim Kátai-Urbán, Tibor Bíró, Lajos Kátai-Urbán, Ferenc Varga and Zsolt Cimer
Fire 2023, 6(9), 345; https://doi.org/10.3390/fire6090345 - 01 Sep 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 973
Abstract
Major accidents involving flammable substances can lead to significant environmental damage. The operators of chemical warehouses—in order to prevent and mitigate harmful environmental impacts—based on fire prevention strategies should apply “firewater pollution prevention” (FPP) measures. The identification of affected warehouses already in operation [...] Read more.
Major accidents involving flammable substances can lead to significant environmental damage. The operators of chemical warehouses—in order to prevent and mitigate harmful environmental impacts—based on fire prevention strategies should apply “firewater pollution prevention” (FPP) measures. The identification of affected warehouses already in operation is an important law enforcement task. Therefore, the authors—based on the assessment of firewater run-off scenarios—propose a simple and easy-to-use dangerous establishment identification procedure and methodology based on event tree analysis and indexing preliminary risk analysis approaches. Two independent expert groups validated—in the case of 10 facilities—the index components of the approach. The testing of the applicability of the approach took place in parallel with the analyses of the Hungarian operator’s practice. The research results—covering the inspection of 24 facilities—can assist the operators in the effective and unified implementation of FPP measures. In the case of 14 facilities, it was necessary to introduce FPP measures, which highlight the need to improve the law enforcement compliance of identified operators. The investigation results can also contribute to increases in the fire and environmental safety performance of chemical warehouses, which ensures a higher level of environmental protection and people’s health near chemical warehouses. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Post-fire Effects on Environment)
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