Effects of wildfires on flora, fauna and physico-chemical properties of soil-An overview

Abstract

Fire is one of the most destructive threats faced by our forests. Fire is good servant but a bad master. The fire season starts in March/April continues up to June. Wildfires destroy not only flora (tree, herbs, grassland, forbs, etc.) and their diversity but also considerable long term negative impact on fauna including wild endangered species. Repeated fires can convert some shrub-lands to grass and fire exclusion converts some grassland to shrub-land and forest. Fires affect animals mainly through effects on their habitat. The extent of fire effects on animal communities generally depends on the extent of change in habitat structure and species composition caused by fire. Fire can also influence a physico-chemical property of soil including texture, color, bulk density, pH, porosity, organic matter, nutrient availability and soil biota. Drought, disease, insect infestation, overgrazing or a combination of these factors may increase the impact of fire on an individual plant species or communities. Common effects include plant mortality, increase flowering, seed production and numerous communal affects. Fire affected area showed reduction in species diversity both in flora and fauna. In a social context, fire directly affects people, property and infrastructure, thereby directly affecting the health and livelihood of individuals and communities.

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Journal of Applied and Natural Science 6 (2): 887 - 897 (2014)
Effects of wildfires on flora, fauna and physico-chemical properties of soil-An
overview
Manoj Kumar Jhariya* and Abhishek Raj
1
Department of Farm Forestry, Sarguja University, Ambikapur- 497001 (C.G.), INDIA
1
Department of Forestry, College of Agriculture, Indira Gandhi Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Raipur- 492012 (C.G.), INDIA
*Corresponding author. E-mail: manu9589@gmail.com
Received: May 06, 2014; Revised received: October 15, 2014; Accepted: December 09, 2014
Abstract: Fire is one of the most destructive threats faced by our forests. Fire is good servant but a bad master. The
fire season starts in March/April continues up to June. Wildfires destroy not only flora (tree, herbs, grassland, forbs,
etc.) and their diversity but also considerable long term negative impact on fauna including wild endangered species.
Repeated fires can convert some shrub-lands to grass and fire exclusion converts some grassland to shrub-land and
forest. Fires affect animals mainly through effects on their habitat. The extent of fire effects on animal communities
generally depends on the extent of change in habitat structure and species composition caused by fire. Fire can also
influence a physico-chemical property of soil including texture, color, bulk density, pH, porosity, organic matter, nutrient
availability and soil biota. Drought, disease, insect infestation, overgrazing or a combination of these factors may
increase the impact of fire on an individual plant species or communities. Common effects include plant mortality,
increase flowering, seed production and numerous communal affects. Fire affected area showed reduction in species
diversity both in flora and fauna. In a social context, fire directly affects people, property and infrastructure, thereby
directly affecting the health and livelihood of individuals and communities.
Keywords: Diversity, Flora, Fauna, Habitat, Wildfires
ISSN : 0974-9411 (Print), 2231-5209 (Online) All Rights Reserved © Applied and Natural Science Foundation www.ansfoundation.org
INTRODUCTION
Forest fires are considered to be a potential hazard
with physical, biological, ecological and
environmental consequences (Jaiswal et al., 2002).
Majority of wildfires are initiated by nature as well as
by man itself. People cause fires accounts 98% of the
all fires, while natural factors are responsible for the
remaining 2%. Of the people caused fires 23% was
classified as arson, 27% as negligence and carelessness
and 50% as unknown (Neyisci, 1985; Mol and
Kucukosmanoglu, 1997; Mustafa, 2009). A total of
8,645 forest fire incidences have been reported during
2004-2005; 20,567 during 2005-2006; 16,779 during
2006-2007; 17,264 during 2007-2008; 26,180 during
2008-2009; 30,892 during 2009-2010 and 13,898
during 2010-2011, respectively in India. Central India
including Madhya Pradesh is highly prone to forest fire
followed by state likes Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and
Odisha (FSI, 2012). Fire can change plant
composition, structure, diversity (Jhariya, 2011;
Jhariya et al., 2012; Jhariya, 2013; Kittur et al., 2014a
& b), destroy biomass, organic matter and influence
the physical and chemical properties of soil including
the loss or reduction of structure and soil organic
matter, reduced porosity and increased pH (DeBano,
1990; Certini, 2005; Jhariya, 2014; Jhariya et al.,
2014). As per Raj and Jhariya (2014) fire is a big
disaster in the forest causes a loss of natural resources,
depleting of soil biomass resulting loss of various
mobile nutrient. Impact of forest fire is varies from
vegetational structure of forest community, availability
of fuel load, frequency, intensity and fire return
interval of that forest. Globally, biomass fires are
burning between 3-4.5 million Km
2
per year, this is
area equivalent to India plus Pakistan or more than half
of Australia (Chatenoux and Peduzzi, 2012). However,
impacts from biomass fires are numerous and severe.
They include loss of soil cohesion from heat, which
then accelerate soil erosion (from wind or rain), it
destroys complex ecosystems and thus has a significant
impact on biodiversity, it emits GHG, and biomass
fires are responsible for 17.4% of GHG global
emissions (Solomon et al., 2007). Fire encouraged
fire-tolerant tree species and discouraged fire-sensitive
species as reported by Ivanauskas et al. (2003). Fires
may also play a significant role in regulating
ecosystem productivity and diversity by promoting
mineralization of nutrients stored in organic matter and
allowing the invasion of rapid growing early
successional species (Busse et al., 1996; DeBano et al.,
1998; Boerner et al., 2009). Soil provides numerous
essential ecosystem services such as primary
production (including agricultural and forestry

888
products); regulation of biogeochemical cycle (with
consequences of the climate); water filtration,
resistance to diseases and pests and regulation of above
ground biodiversity (Jhariya and Raj, 2014). Fire leads
to important change in physical, chemical and biological
properties of soil, which are relevant for the future
productivity and sustainability of ecosystem (Neary et
al., 2005). Wang et al. (2012) reported that fire
increases C and N availability and increase microbial
activity, which consequently decreases the potential
rates of C sequestration. The extent and duration of
these effects on soil properties depend on the intensity
and residence time, fire severity (Certini, 2005). Large
and damaging wildfires have occurred in Australia
(Bradstock et al., 2009), Canada (Wang et al., 2010),
China (Casanova et al., 2008), throughout the
Mediterranean basin (Leone et al., 2009), Siberia
(Achard et al., 2008), Southeast Asia (Khandekar et
al., 2000) and the United States, particularly in Alaska,
the southeast and west (Littell et al., 2009). Fires effect
is generally depends upon the presence of fire hazard
materials i.e. accumulation of fuels, moisture content
and ignition incidence. Fuel accumulation is generally
depends on the production and decomposition of
ignitable material, which varies among the vegetation
and forest types. Kittur and Jhariya (2012) reported
that duffs litter and wood litter in both high fire and
medium fire zones in the post-fire season was
decreased. While in low fire and non-fire zones the
fuel load was increased due to protection from fire in
moist deciduous forest of Achanakmar-Amarkantak
Biosphere Reserve. Fire influence nutrients status of
soil by burning of organic matter. While making fire
line and fuel-breaks are most remarkable method for
fire-suppression in several forests. But some research
indicates that fire has been part of Indian ecosystems
for several millennia and that fire prevention has lead
to the proliferation of invasive species, which
ironically has increased the fire frequency in
ecosystems (Hiremath and Sundaram, 2005). The
purpose of this paper is to review the effect of wildfire
on flora, fauna and various property of soil, which are
important in maintaining healthy ecosystem.
EFFECTS OF WILDLIFE ON FLORA
Fire damages the tree, shrubs and plants. Globally,
more than 350 m ha of forests was burned in 2000,
equal to 6% of the world’s geographical area (FAO,
2007). The extent of damage depends on the species,
age, intensity of fire and vegetation types.
EFFECTS ON FORESTS
Fire enter forests through in-cendiarism and accidental
fires (Kodandapani et al., 2008) and introduced by
various indigenous communities to aid in the
collection of non-timber forest products (Narendran et
al., 2001; Saha, 2002). The extent of damage and
response of tree to fire is depends upon the fire
parameter including intensity, severity, soil heating,
season of burn, residence time and time since last fire.
In addition, numerous physical and climatic factors
(e.g., fuel condition, weather, slope, and aspect) as
well as biological factors (plant morphology and
physiology) also influence post-fire effects on plant
communities. Indian forests are broadly classified into
16 types (Champion and Seth, 1968). Of these, large
area of tropical deciduous forests is under intense
pressure due to recurrent fires. Of the six vegetation
types, dry deciduous forest shows significantly high
burnt area, followed by thorn forest, broadleaved
forest, dry savannah, Scrub and grasslands (Krishna
and Reddy, 2012). Seasonally dry tropical forests are
considered to be the most threatened from natural fires,
land use change and escaped fires following slash and
burn agriculture during the dry season (Murphy and
Lugo, 1986a; Kauffman et al., 2003). Fire is also effect
on biomass and carbon accumulation by directly
reduce biomass and carbon stored in seasonally dry
tropical forests (Kauffman et al., 2003; Van der Werf
et al., 2003). As per Jhariya et al. (2014) forest fire
have significant impact on biomass and carbon storage
pattern on tree species while the shrubs produce higher
biomass in the area where fire is more common or high
severity as compare to protected site due to reduction
of competition due to open canopy in tropical dry
deciduous forest.
According to Vargas et al. (2008), carbon stored in
belowground fractions could rapidly be lost if forests
are disturbed and the thin soil is lost by fire or erosion
with a potential carbon loss between 120 and 150 Mg
Cha
-1
in a mature forest. In addition, fires smoke has
direct impact on the surface energy budget and
increase atmospheric temperatures (Wang and Christopher,
2006) and produce feedbacks on the evaporation processes,
cloud formation and precipitation patterns that could
affect the hydrologic cycle at regional scales (Menon
et al., 2002; Allen and Rincon, 2003). Fire also influences
the pattern of litter-fall and nutrient input in forest.
Dezzeo and Chacon (2006) have worked on effects of
fire on litter-fall and nutrient input in forests of Gran
Sabana, Southern Venezuela and reported that total
annual litter-fall was 5.19 Mg ha
-1
year
-1
in the tall forest
(tall primary forest), 5.65 Mg ha
-1
year
-1
in the medium
forest (slight fire affected forest) and 3.93 Mg ha
-1
year
-1
in low forest (strong fire affected forest). Result
shows that annual litter-fall values of the tall and
medium forests did not differ significantly between
them, but were significantly higher than the annual
litter-fall value for the low forest. Also between tall
and medium forests, the annual input of nutrients was
similar with the exception of Ca, which was
significantly higher in tall forest and low forest showed
significantly lower annual inputs of N and P, and a
significantly higher input of K, in compared tall and
medium forests. Broad leaved species are more
vulnerable than the conifers due to corky bark. Resin
Manoj Kumar Jhariya and Abhishek Raj
/ J. Appl. & Nat. Sci. 6 (2): 887 - 897 (2014)

889
tapped tree are severally affected by fire than the
non-tapped trees.
According to Chandra (2005), high resin content in
sub-tropical pine region and dry condition in the tropical
region have been a major cause of fire spreads in India.
Fire also influences the richness and diversity of tree
seedling species (Jhariya and Oraon, 2012a) and it may
causes killing of both root-crown re-sprouters and root
-sprouters. The decline of species richness in time after
forest fire might be caused primarily by the elimination
of some early species which were over topped and
shaded out by rapidly growing fire hardy species. In
high fire zones more than 44% seedling population
decreased after fire season, it will adversely affect the
forest stratification in future. Fires have negative impacts
on native plant diversity, with varying effects on species
and ecosystems including the potential for localized
extinction (Kittur et al., 2014b). Fire has positive
effect on the plant diversity in the Oak forest (Bakhtar
et al., 2013). Saha and Howe (2003) reported that,
diversity was also significantly higher among seedlings
in the fire-excluded plots than the burned plots,
amounting to a 28% reduction in diversity in tropical
dry forest in Mendha Forest of central India.
Characters including thick bark, fire-stimulated sprouting,
germination or seed dispersal, resistance to rotting,
modified seedling structure and thick heat-resistant
buds, which show fire tolerating capacity of the tree
species (Myers, 1990; Abrams, 1992; Bond and Van
Wilgen, 1996; Wade et al., 2000).
Lodgepole pine has a hard coated seeds or serotinous
cone, open to release seed in the presence of heat of
fire. In India, about thousand hectares of forests of south
western Himalayan region (Uttarakhand) are burned
every year by the forest fires. The vulnerability of the
Indian forests to fire varies from place to place
depending upon the type of vegetation, climate and
season of fire. The coniferous forest in the Himalayan
region comprising of fir (Abies spp.), spruce (Picea
smithiana), Cedrus deodara, Pinus roxburghii and
Pinus wallichiana etc. is very prone to fire. Various
regions of the country have different normal and peak fire
seasons, which normally vary from January to June. In
the plains of northern and central India, most of the
forest fires occur between February and June. In the
hills of northern India fire season starts later and most
of the fires are reported between April and June. In the
southern part of the country, fire season extends from
January to May. In the Himalayan region, fires are
common in May and June (IFFN, 2002). Physiographic
factors, i.e. elevation and slope aspect across different
forest types is also influence the extent of fire. Joshi et
al. (2013) studied on effects of fire in relation to aspects
on number of seedling, sapling and biomass stock in
Oak and Pine mixed forests of Kumaun central Himalayas,
India. They reported that those studied sites where fire
frequency was regular (every year) the number of sapling
and seedling count was 360 individual ha
-1
and 370
individual ha
-1
in south-eastern aspect, while this number
increased to 610 and 370 individual ha
-1
for the
north-western aspect where fire occurred once in a five
year. The forest tree biomass and carbon also decreased
in south-western aspects (9.47 t ha
-1
and 38.54 t ha
-1
)
than north-western site (62.54 t ha
-1
and 49.93 t ha
-1
),
where fire frequency is every year. On southern aspects
of pine forests in Garhwal Himalaya, frequent fires are
common. This is due to the high inflammability of igniting
material due to a low water content and high surrounding
temperature. Moreover, the forests growing on the
southern aspects are generally exposed to harsh climatic
conditions and are prone to various natural disturbances
like wind fall, wild fire, etc., which hinder accumulation
of large amount of biomass on these aspects (Sharma
et al., 2011).
According to Jhariya (2014) fire have negative impact
on carbon storage, carbon stock, net production and
potential C sequestration in a seasonally dry forest ecosystem.
Site productivity is also influence by the consequence of
wildfire. Productivity is maintained by the presence of
essential nutrients including N, S, P, K, Ca etc, which
can be altered by fire. Klock and Grier (1979) reported
that detrimental effects of fire on the long term site
productivity may be greater in forest regions lacking
significant vegetative N-fixation. Also fire can reduce
Nitrogen status, which results in lower net primary
productivity (NPP) and carbon storage. Thornley and
Cannell (2004) reported that loss of carbon on combustion
of about 500 kg C ha
–1
year
–1
represented about 17%
of the NPP (3000 kg C ha
–1
year
-1
) in Boreal forest.
Rocha et al. (2013) reported that total NPP for control
plot was higher (10.36±0.64 Mg C ha
-1
year
-1
) than burn
plot (8.80±0.62 Mg C ha
-1
year
-1
) in dry southern limit
of Amazon rainforest (Brazil). Forest biomass burning is
also influence emission of CO
2
in environment, which
causes greenhouse effects. Tropical deforestation provides a
significant contribution to anthropogenic increases in
atmospheric CO
2
concentration that may lead to global
warming. So, forest plays a lead role for maintaining
the CO
2
level, C sequestration and protects the ecosystem
from global warming. Badarinath and Vadrevu (2011)
reported that, 2,414 Km
2
area has been estimated to be
burnt annually in forested area including closed broad-leaf
deciduous forest, closed needle-leaf evergreen forest,
closed to open broad-leaf evergreen/semi-deciduous
forest, closed/open mixed broadleaf/needle-leaf forest,
mosaic forest/grassland/shrub-land and open
broad-leaf deciduous forest in India. The CO
2
emissions
averaged across seven years were ~6.34 CO
2
Tg/yr
from biomass burning of these forest types.
Susceptibility and vulnerability to wildfire is also
depends on type of forest. As per report of IFFN
(2002) maximum frequent fire (50%) was reported in
north-eastern region as compared to minimum (5%) in
Dry deciduous. Also, maximum occasional fire (60%)
was reported in Moist deciduous forest in comparison
Manoj Kumar Jhariya and Abhishek Raj
/ J. Appl. & Nat. Sci. 6 (2): 887 - 897 (2014)

890
to lowest (35%) in Dry deciduous forest. It was shown
in Table 1.
EFFECTS ON SHRUBS
Morphological characteristics including crown size
and shape, height, branch density, ratio of live to dead
crown material, crown base location with respect to
surface fuels and total crown size are determine a
shrubs vulnerability to fire. In general small buds and
branches, due to their small mass and high surface area
to volume ratios, are more susceptible to lethal heating
than large buds. Bark thickness, composition, cracks
and moisture content is also determining the protecting
quality of bark and fire impacts on shrubs stem. Fire
can also cause root mortality. According to Sheuyange
et al. (2005), frequent fires reduced shrub cover
temporarily and promoted herbaceous cover. However,
the frequent fires positively influenced the herbaceous
and tree species. When canopy disturbance and surface
fires occur in tandem or relatively close together in
time, the increase in light can contribute to the
development of a recalcitrant understory layer (Mallik,
2003, Payette and Delwaide, 2003). Jhariya and Oraon
(2012c) censured lianas and shrubs in four sites (High,
medium, low and non-fire zone) of tropical forest
ecosystem of Chhattisgarh, reported that density of
lianas and shrubs was varied from 1120 to 2480
individuals ha
-1
during pre-fire season and 1920 to
3360 individuals ha
-1
at the time of post-fire season.
The total 11 species were recorded during pre-fire
season whereas it had increase after the fire (20
species). The forest fire in addition to the intermittent
canopy structure provides favorable habitats for the
development and high abundance.
The potential of lianas and shrubs to regenerate well
naturally where the fire events and/or higher anthropogenic
disturbances are common (Rodgers et al., 1986;
Kumar and Thakur, 2008; Sahu et al., 2008; Mishra et
al., 2008; Jhariya and Oraon, 2012c). Various reasons
are reported by different workers which supports to
lianas and shrubs growth like fire derived nutrient
deposition (Asner et al., 1997; Dawson et al., 2002;
Chen et al., 2010; Jhariya, 2010), availability of
tree-fall gaps resulted from the natural and/or
anthropogenic disturbance (Putz, 1983; Laurance et
Manoj Kumar Jhariya and Abhishek Raj
/ J. Appl. & Nat. Sci. 6 (2): 887 - 897 (2014)
al., 2001; Schnitzer and Bongers, 2002; Schnitzer and
Bongers, 2011; Schnitzer et al., 2012), there may be
less competition due to open canopy (Perez-Salicrup et
al., 2001; Gianoli et al., 2010; Schnitzer et al., 2012)
because fire causing damage to sensitive species which
resulted killing of the trees and new growing ones
(Jhariya, 2013). The decline of species after forest fire
might cause elimination of some early species which
were over topped and shaded out by rapidly growing
woody plants, especially resprouters (Miller, 2000).
EFFECTS ON GROUND VEGETATION
Burning alone can result in increased forbs abundance
(Wienk et al., 2004) graminoid abundance and under
story species richness (Busse et al., 2000; Laughlin et
al., 2004). Both Herbivores and fire frequency together
drive forest-grassland dynamics in savannas (Holdo et
al., 2009). The herbs number, density, diversity
increase after fire because of reduction in number of
tree species and permit more to more light in the
ground floor. Jhariya and Oraon (2012b) studied the
impact of forest fire on herbaceous vegetation of four
sites (High, medium, low and non-fire zone) in
Bhoramdeo Wildlife Sanctuary situated in Chhattisgarh,
India and reported that fire cause increased in species
number (19) and density during pre-fire (112000 to
668000 ha
-1
) and species number (30) and density
(230000 to 510000 ha
-1
) during post fire season. Also
the herb layer showed higher density after post-fire in
high and low fire zones, whereas decreased in medium
fire zone due to change in season, the density of herb
layer also increased (40.03%) after post-fire in non-fire
zone. The areas or sites facing forest fire or other
biotic disturbances supports more herbaceous
vegetation as compared to undisturbed one due to the
lower competition for various resources (Jhariya and
Oraon, 2012b; Jhariya et al., 2013). The herbaceous
vegetation increase after fire events because of general
reduction in tree cover that brings more sunlight to the
soil and for growing understorey or herbaceous cover
(Moretti et al., 2002; Sheuyange et al., 2005; Keith et
al., 2010). Azizi et al. (2006) also stated that the fire
mainly affects the undergrowth vegetation, and highest
species diversity in moderately disturb ecosystem than
in undisturbed ecosystems (Connell, 1978; Decocq et
al., 2004).
EFFECTS ON WILD ANIMALS
Fire has influenced composition, structure and
landscape patterns of animal habitat. Wildlife may be
affected by fire both through direct mortality or habitat
alteration (Lyon et al., 2000b). Some fires alter the
vegetation structure of forest, which is work as shelter
and hiding cover for wild-animals and vegetation
structure spatially arranged all the resource needed to
live and reproduce. Dead wood on the ground is an
essential habitat component for many birds, small
mammals and even large mammals, including bears
Table 1. Susceptibility and vulnerability of Indian forests to
wildfire (IFFN, 2002).
Type of forest Fire
frequent
(%)
Fire
occasional
(%)
Coniferous 8 40
Moist Deciduous 15 60
Dry Deciduous 5 35
Wet/Semi-Evergreen 9 40
North-Eastern Region 50 45

891
(Bull and Blumton, 1999). Fire cause large dead logs
on the ground, harbor many invertebrates and are
particularly of ants; they also provide shelter and cover
for small mammals, amphibians and reptiles.
Ground-nesting birds could be killed prior to fledging
(Reinking, 2005) and forest floor arthropods in the egg
or larval stages may be more vulnerable to loss (Niwa
and Peck, 2002). Dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis)
often choose nest sites in unburned patches within
prescribed fire units (Sperry et al., 2008). Amphibians
are also likely to be more active with the moister
conditions under which prescribed fires are typically
conducted (Pilliod et al., 2003). The longer term
responses of many bird species are thought to be due
primarily to structural changes of vegetation or
changes to food resources, as affected by fire severity
(Huff and Smith, 2000; Kirkpatrick et al., 2006).
EFFECTS ON SOIL PROPERTY
Fire can influence physical and chemical properties of
soil.
Effects on physical properties of soil: Soil physical
properties are those characteristics, process, or
reactions of a soil that are caused by physical forces
that can be described by, or expressed in, physical
terms or equations (SSSA, 2001). It can increase the
soil pH (Aref et al., 2011), however significant
increase occurs only at higher temperature and fire can
also cause increase in bulk-density of soil because of
collapse of aggregate and clogging of voids by the ash
and dispersed clay minerals; as a consequence, soil
porosity and permeability decreases (Certini, 2005).
Jhariya (2014) stated that forest fire have a significant
impact of soil physical properties like texture, bulk
density, moisture regime etc. Fire can also influence
the soil water repellency (WR). High surface temperature
‘burn’ off organic materials and create vapours that
move downward in response to a temperature gradient
and then condense on soil particles causing them to
become water repellent (Letey, 2001). As a result of
increased hydrophobicity (water repellency), infiltration
rate to be decreases and increased runoff that often
results in increased erosion (DeBano, 2000). Ekinci
(2006) reported that wildfire can increased soil pH,
electrical conductivity (EC), available P and K,
organic N content; reduced CEC, porosity, urease
activity, total organic carbon (TOC) and soil water
content. But Aref et al. (2011) reported that electrical
conductivity (+/-) significantly decreased from 2.13 in
unburned sites to 1.1 dS m
-1
in burned sites in Al Hilia
Forest (Saudi Arabia). The component of soil texture
(+/-) is also affected by nature and duration of fire.
Nardoto and Bustamante (2003) reported that percentage
of sand, silt and clay varied from burned to unburned
site at the depth of 0-5cm in Cerrado Stricto sensu
sites. According to him, except of clay%, percentage of
sand and silt are increased from unburned site (15%, 11%)
to burned site (21%, 13%) respectively but the value of
clay decreased from unburned site (74%) to burned site
(66%). Also reported that bulk density increased from
0.64 to 0.67gcm
-3
and per cent of total porosity decreased
from 76.0 to 75.6. Aref et al. (2011) reported that fire
did not affects soil texture and this was indicated by
the fact that sand, silt and clay (%) were not significantly
different when burned locations were compared with
normal ones in Al Hilia Forest (Saudi Arabia).
Effects on chemical properties of soil: Forest fire can
influence the availability of organic carbon and soil
nutrient dynamics (Jhariya, 2014). Globally, forests are
the most important carbon pool in terrestrial
ecosystems (Dixon et al., 1994), containing 66-80% of
all carbon stored in above-ground biomass and 45% of
that found in below-ground terrestrial pools (Dixon
and Turner, 1991; Waring and Running, 1998). Soil
organic matter (SOM) represents the third largest
terrestrial carbon pool, with a global estimated total of
1526 PgC (Lal, 2004). Total and partial destruction of
soil organic matter is generally depending on fire
severity, intensity, dryness of the surface organic
matter (OM) and fire type and other factors like soil
moisture, soil type and nature of burned materials.
Nabatte and Nyombi (2013), reported that mean soil
organic matter content in the burnt plots was lower
(4.593%, range 2.6-6.1%) than that of the unburned
plots (5.11%, range 2.8-8.2%), implying that burning
decrease the organic matter content. Low intensity
prescribed fire usually results in little change in soil
carbon, but intense prescribed fire or wildfire can
result in a huge loss of soil carbon (Johnson, 1992).
Fire effects on organic carbon (+/-) of mineral soil
range from no effect (Johnson and Curtis, 2001;
Certini, 2005) to a loss of 60% (Bormann et al., 2008).
Nutrient status (+/-) of soil is also influence by
occurrence of fire. Effects of fires on soil organic C
and total N was highly variable and controversial.
Some studies demonstrated that fires significantly
decreased soil organic C or total N (Mabuhay et al.,
2003; Zhang et al., 2005; Nabatte and Nyombi, 2013),
increase (Boerner et al., 2004) and neutral effect or
little effect of fire (Wilson et al., 2002; Knoepp et al.,
2004). Also burn soil has low mean phosphorus
content (5.77 mg Kg
-1
, range 1.1-29.6 mg Kg
-1
) than
un-burnt plots (6.34 mg Kg
-1
, range 1.2-39.2 mg Kg
-1
)
(Nabatte and Nyombi, 2013) and remains unchanged
(Neff et al., 2005). Ammonium (NH
4+
) and nitrate
(NO
3-
) are the inorganic forms of nitrogen that
originate during the burning (Certini, 2005). Because
of high temperature, soil macro-nutrients (+/-) are loss
through volatilization as a result of wildfire. The
behavior of micronutrients, such as Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, B,
and Mo, with respect to fire is not well known because
specific studies are lacking (Certini, 2005). Garcia-Marco
and Gonzalez-Prieto (2008) has reported that
prescribed fire cause short-term changes in the soil
micro-nutrient availability, increasing that of Mn and
Zn and decreasing that of Fe and Co; they found no
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892
effect on Cu availability. The most significant
short-term effects of the wildfire are the increases in
the soil solution concentrations and /or leaching of
mineral forms of N, S and P (Murphy et al., 2006).
Wildfire can also influence the C/N ratio (+/-) in
somewhat extent. Prescribed burning reduced the
thickness of the forest floor and caused a low C/N ratio
(Hogberg et al., 2007). Badia and Marti (2003)
reported that C/N ratio, soil organic matter content and
nutrient availability all increased after burning.
Effects on biological properties of soil: Fire can
affects biological organisms including invertebrates
and micro-organism (soil bacteria, mycorrhiza) in
direct and indirect way. Soil dwelling invertebrates
play an important role in litter decomposition, carbon
and nutrient mineralization, soil turnover and soil
structure formation (Neary et al., 1999). Fire generally
affects abundance, species composition, instant
mortality and habitat alteration of soil dwelling
invertebrates. Soil microbial biomass (+/-) is a
potential source of plant nutrients and a higher level of
soil microbial biomass is an indicator of soil fertility
and soil health. This microbial biomass of soil is
defined as the part of the organic matter in the soil that
constitutes living smaller microorganisms. The soil
microbial biomass carbon (+/-) comprises 1-3% of
total organic carbon in soil (Jenkinson and Ladd,
1981). Fire in tall grass prairie has been found to
reduce both SMBC and SMBN (Ajwa et al., 1999) but
can be increase SMBC via a long term increase in root
production (Ojima et al., 1994; Fynn et al., 2003).
Fire results reduction in micro-organism biomass,
which play an important role in nutrient cycling and
energy flow in forest ecosystem. Effects of fire on soil
microbial biomass may be positive (Mabuhay et al.,
2003; Liu et al., 2007), negative (Choromanska and
DeLuca, 2001; Rodriguez et al., 2009), or neutral
(Rutigliano et al., 2007). Jhariya (2014), found
considerable site to site variability in the amount of
microbial biomass carbon associated with the soil
sampling depth, season and different fire regimes as
well. These all the fire sites differed in the quantity and
floristic composition of the vegetation. The numbers of
tree species affect the availability and biochemical
composition of organic matter inputs in soil (Leckie et
al., 2004). Changes in soil microbial biomass induced
by fire have been noted to be more complex. The
forest fire significantly decreased microbial biomass C,
which was in agreement with some previous reports
(Grady and Hart, 2006; Waldrop and Harden, 2008;
Campbell et al., 2008; Rodriguez et al., 2009; Swallow
et al., 2009; Sun et al., 2011). Otsuka et al. (2008)
reported that community structure of soil bacteria in
post-fire non-climax forest several years after fire can
be more heterogeneous compared with that in
unburned climax forest. Campbell et al. (2008) also
reported that burning treatment caused a significant
reduction in soil carbon sources and therefore altered
the soil microbial community structure.
Conclusion
Fire is a natural ecological disturbance factor in forest
and these forests plays an important role to maintain
ecosystem structure and their function and provide
services include carbon storage, production of O
2
,
production of biomass (timber, fire wood) and production
of pharmaceutical products. Wildfires create a myriad
of environmental, social and economic impacts.
Wildfire impacts includes total acres burned, cost of
fire suppression, damage to homes and structures,
alteration of wildlife habitat, damage to watersheds
and water supply, damage to public recreation
facilities, evacuation of adjacent communities, tourism
impacts, damage to timber resources, destruction of
cultural and archaeological sites, costs of rehabilitation
and restoration, public health impacts, transportation
impacts. To save the forest from scourge of fire is thus
a central responsibility of forest managers in this
country. From conservation point of view, maintaining
and sustaining these all forest types is important as
they harbor high biodiversity of not only plant species,
but are also a preferred habitat for several wild
animals. From management perspectives a participatory
approach should incorporate for betterment of
environmental conservation and ecological stability.
Use of controlled fire, fire lines, fuel breaks, fuel load
removal and mapping of fire sensitive areas are key
principles to minimize fire risk. Remote sensing and
GIS is novel techniques for detection and monitoring
systems for fire prediction and it must become an
integral part of fire management.
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