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Project properties |
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| Title | Effects of soil slope stabilization treatments on soil erosion and plant recovery after wildfires. |
| 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
Postfire restoration practices encompass those which aim to reduce negative wildfire impacts and to improve burned area rehabilitation. Mulching, Contour-felled log debris (CFD) and log erosion barriers (LEB) are techniques used worldwide on hillslopes after wildfires in order to avoid soil erosion. In this context, it is essential to evaluate how these restoration techniques can affect soil and plant ecosystems by increasing or decreasing wildfire impacts. Research Objective/Question The objective of this study is to evaluate the effects of postfire hillslope stabilisation techniques (Mulching, log erosion barriers and contour-felled log debris) on soil quality, nutrient content and plant biodiversity. This will be done using different biomarkers of the soil microbial community’s functional ability, such as soil enzyme activities, microbiological soil parameters and soil nutrient content. Unburned and burned areas with no postfire restoration techniques will be used as the control. We hypothesised that hillslope stabilisation techniques may enhance plant recovery and soil quality compared to unburned and burned areas because these techniques increase the detention and infiltration of overland flow and, therefore, reduce runoff and sediment transport capacity, which directly affect soil organic matter (OM) content and nutrient storage. What is expected from the student (type of research): It 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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