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Project properties |
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| Title | Do prescribed burns promote soil erosion and alter plant diversity. |
| Group | Soil Physics and Land Management group |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 24-39 |
| Supervisor(s) | Jantiene Baartman |
| Examiner(s) | Coen Ritsema |
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| Begin date | 2020/02/03 |
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| Description | Problem context
Prescribed fire removes or reduces the plant material that is prone to forest fires by creating fuel discontinuity and minimising fire intensity. This forest management measure potentially impacts Mediterranean ecosystems’ hydrological response and plant biodiversity by influencing water infiltration into soil and directly burning vegetation. As direct measurements (e.g. soil erosion, absence/presence of plant, etc) this study has evaluated changes in soil erosion and plant composition after prescribed fires in representative plots of forests in the Iberian Peninsula under Mediterranean semi-arid conditions. Research Objective/Question The present study aims to evaluate the effects of prescribed fires severity on soil erosion and plant diversity under semiarid conditions. The fieldwork experiment should confirm or reject the working hypothesis of this study. Initially, we hypothesize that prescribed fires decrease infiltration rate thereby increasing surface runoff rates and soil erosion and plant mortality in forest soil. This trend may be modulate by fire severity. What is expected from the student (type of research) t is expected that the student work actively on: A literature review on the topic Fieldwork including soil and plant biodiversity surveys Lab analyses including soil bulk density and other physicochemical soil properties will be calculated in the laboratory (soil texture, OM, …) Statistical analyses work |
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