IMPACT4SOIL OpenAire Datacite Recolector de Ciencia Abierta, RECOLECTA DIGITAL.CSIC Open Access Open AccessPeer reviewed Open AccessPeer reviewed Wildfires directly emit 2.1 Pg carbon (C) to the atmosphere annually. The net effect of wildfires on the C cycle, however, involves many interacting source and sink processes beyond these emissions from combustion. Among those, the role of post-fire enhanced soil organic carbon (SOC) erosion as a C sink mechanism remains essentially unquantified. Wildfires can greatly enhance soil erosion due to the loss of protective vegetation cover and changes to soil structure and wettability. Post-fire SOC erosion acts as a C sink when off-site burial and stabilization of C eroded after a fire, together with the on-site recovery of SOC content, exceed the C losses during its post-fire transport. Here we synthesize published data on post-fire SOC erosion and evaluate its overall potential to act as longer-term C sink. To explore its quantitative importance, we also model its magnitude at continental scale using the 2017 wildfire season in Europe. Our estimations show that the C sink ability of SOC water erosion during the first post-fire year could account for around 13% of the C emissions produced by wildland fires. This indicates that post-fire SOC erosion is a quantitatively important process in the overall C balance of fires, and highlights the need for more field data to further validate this initial assessment. Here we provide the post-fire SOC erosion dataset ('Post-fire SOC erosion rates' file) used for calculating the SOC ratio of eroded sediments implemented in the RUSLE modelling; as well as the list of data sources ('List of data sources' file). Open AccessPeer reviewed Wildfires directly emit 2.1 Pg carbon (C) to the atmosphere annually. The net effect of wildfires on the C cycle, however, involves many interacting source and sink processes beyond these emissions from combustion. Among those, the role of post-fire enhanced soil organic carbon (SOC) erosion as a C sink mechanism remains essentially unquantified. Wildfires can greatly enhance soil erosion due to the loss of protective vegetation cover and changes to soil structure and wettability. Post-fire SOC erosion acts as a C sink when off-site burial and stabilization of C eroded after a fire, together with the on-site recovery of SOC content, exceed the C losses during its post-fire transport. Here we synthesize published data on post-fire SOC erosion and evaluate its overall potential to act as longer-term C sink. To explore its quantitative importance, we also model its magnitude at continental scale using the 2017 wildfire season in Europe. Our estimations show that the C sink ability of SOC water erosion during the first post-fire year could account for around 13% of the C emissions produced by wildland fires. This indicates that post-fire SOC erosion is a quantitatively important process in the overall C balance of fires, and highlights the need for more field data to further validate this initial assessment. Here we provide the post-fire SOC erosion dataset ('Post-fire SOC erosion rates' file) used for calculating the SOC ratio of eroded sediments implemented in the RUSLE modelling; as well as the list of data sources ('List of data sources' file). Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Ramón y Cajal 2021 RYC2021-031262-I; European Union, Ramón y Cajal 2021 RYC2021-031262-I; Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Proyecto Intramural Especial20208AT007; Natural Environment Research Council, UK-FDRS (NE/T003553/1) NE/T003553/1; European Union, FirEURisk101003890 Soil sciences soil erosion wildfires prescribed fires soil organic carbon erosion Girona-García, Antonio, Vieira, Diana, Doerr, Stefan, Panagos, Panos, Santín, Cristina, 2024-05-17 Open AccessPeer reviewed Open AccessPeer reviewed Wildfires directly emit 2.1 Pg carbon (C) to the atmosphere annually. The net effect of wildfires on the C cycle, however, involves many interacting source and sink processes beyond these emissions from combustion. Among those, the role of post-fire enhanced soil organic carbon (SOC) erosion as a C sink mechanism remains essentially unquantified. Wildfires can greatly enhance soil erosion due to the loss of protective vegetation cover and changes to soil structure and wettability. Post-fire SOC erosion acts as a C sink when off-site burial and stabilization of C eroded after a fire, together with the on-site recovery of SOC content, exceed the C losses during its post-fire transport. Here we synthesize published data on post-fire SOC erosion and evaluate its overall potential to act as longer-term C sink. To explore its quantitative importance, we also model its magnitude at continental scale using the 2017 wildfire season in Europe. Our estimations show that the C sink ability of SOC water erosion during the first post-fire year could account for around 13% of the C emissions produced by wildland fires. This indicates that post-fire SOC erosion is a quantitatively important process in the overall C balance of fires, and highlights the need for more field data to further validate this initial assessment. Here we provide the post-fire SOC erosion dataset ('Post-fire SOC erosion rates' file) used for calculating the SOC ratio of eroded sediments implemented in the RUSLE modelling; as well as the list of data sources ('List of data sources' file). Open AccessPeer reviewed Wildfires directly emit 2.1 Pg carbon (C) to the atmosphere annually. The net effect of wildfires on the C cycle, however, involves many interacting source and sink processes beyond these emissions from combustion. Among those, the role of post-fire enhanced soil organic carbon (SOC) erosion as a C sink mechanism remains essentially unquantified. Wildfires can greatly enhance soil erosion due to the loss of protective vegetation cover and changes to soil structure and wettability. Post-fire SOC erosion acts as a C sink when off-site burial and stabilization of C eroded after a fire, together with the on-site recovery of SOC content, exceed the C losses during its post-fire transport. Here we synthesize published data on post-fire SOC erosion and evaluate its overall potential to act as longer-term C sink. To explore its quantitative importance, we also model its magnitude at continental scale using the 2017 wildfire season in Europe. Our estimations show that the C sink ability of SOC water erosion during the first post-fire year could account for around 13% of the C emissions produced by wildland fires. This indicates that post-fire SOC erosion is a quantitatively important process in the overall C balance of fires, and highlights the need for more field data to further validate this initial assessment. Here we provide the post-fire SOC erosion dataset ('Post-fire SOC erosion rates' file) used for calculating the SOC ratio of eroded sediments implemented in the RUSLE modelling; as well as the list of data sources ('List of data sources' file). Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Ramón y Cajal 2021 RYC2021-031262-I; European Union, Ramón y Cajal 2021 RYC2021-031262-I; Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Proyecto Intramural Especial20208AT007; Natural Environment Research Council, UK-FDRS (NE/T003553/1) NE/T003553/1; European Union, FirEURisk101003890 Data from "Into the unknown: The role of post-fire soil erosion in the carbon cycle" 10.5281/zenodo.11207872 dataset https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11207872