Changes in fire regime of boreal forests in response to climate warming are expected to impact postfire recovery. However, quantitative data on how managed forests sustain and recover from recent fire disturbance are limited.
Two years after a large wildfire in managed even\uffe2\uff80\uff90aged boreal forests in Sweden, we investigated how recovery of aboveground and belowground communities, that is, understory vegetation and soil microbial and faunal communities, responded to variation in the severity of soil (i.e., consumption of soil organic matter) and canopy fires (i.e., tree mortality).
While fire overall enhanced diversity of understory vegetation through colonization of fire adapted plant species, it reduced the abundance and diversity of soil biota. We observed contrasting effects of tree\uffe2\uff80\uff90 and soil\uffe2\uff80\uff90related fire severity on survival and recovery of understory vegetation and soil biological communities. Severe fires that killed overstory Pinus sylvestris promoted a successional stage dominated by the mosses Ceratodon purpureus and Polytrichum juniperinum, but reduced regeneration of tree seedlings and disfavored the ericaceous dwarf\uffe2\uff80\uff90shrub Vaccinium vitis\uffe2\uff80\uff90idaea and the grass Deschampsia flexuosa. Moreover, high tree mortality from fire reduced fungal biomass and changed fungal community composition, in particular that of ectomycorrhizal fungi, and reduced the fungivorous soil Oribatida. In contrast, soil\uffe2\uff80\uff90related fire severity had little impact on vegetation composition, fungal communities, and soil animals. Bacterial communities responded to both tree\uffe2\uff80\uff90 and soil\uffe2\uff80\uff90related fire severity.
Synthesis: Our results 2\uffe2\uff80\uff89years postfire suggest that a change in fire regime from a historically low\uffe2\uff80\uff90severity ground fire regime, with fires that mainly burns into the soil organic layer, to a stand\uffe2\uff80\uff90replacing fire regime with a high degree of tree mortality, as may be expected with climate change, is likely to impact the short\uffe2\uff80\uff90term recovery of stand structure and above\uffe2\uff80\uff90 and belowground species composition of even\uffe2\uff80\uff90aged P.\uffe2\uff80\uff89sylvestris boreal forests.
Forest fires alter soil microbial communities that are essential to support ecosystem recovery following land burning. These alterations have different responses according to soil abiotic pre- and post-fire conditions and fire severity, among others, and tend to decrease along vegetation recovery over time. Thus, understanding the effects of fires on microbial soil communities is critical to evaluate ecosystem resilience and restoration strategies in fire-prone ecosystems. We studied the state of community-level physiological profiles (CLPPs) and the prokaryotic community structure of rhizosphere and bulk soils from two fire-affected sclerophyll forests (one surveyed 17 months and the other 33 months after fire occurrence) in the Mediterranean climate zone of central Chile. Increases in catabolic activity (by average well color development of CLPPs), especially in the rhizosphere as compared with the bulk soil, were observed in the most recently affected site only. Legacy of land burning was still clearly shaping soil prokaryote community structure, as shown by quantitative PCR (qPCR) and Illumina MiSeq sequencing of the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene, particularly in the most recent fire-affected site. The qPCR copy numbers and alpha diversity indexes (Shannon and Pielou\uffe2\uff80\uff99s evenness) of sequencing data decreased in burned soils at both locations. Beta diversity analyses showed dissimilarity of prokaryote communities at both study sites according to fire occurrence, and NO3\uffe2\uff80\uff93 was the common variable explaining community changes for both of them. Acidobacteria and Rokubacteria phyla significantly decreased in burned soils at both locations, while Firmicutes and Actinobacteria increased. These findings provide a better understanding of the resilience of soil prokaryote communities and their physiological conditions in Mediterranean forests of central Chile following different time periods after fire, conditions that likely influence the ecological processes taking place during recovery of fire-affected ecosystems.We examined patterns of nutrient heterogeneity in the mineral soil (0\uffe2\uff80\uff9315 cm depth) of 13 southern Appalachian forest stands in western North Carolina >60 yr after abandonment from pasture or timber harvest to investigate the long\uffe2\uff80\uff90term effects of land use on the spatial distribution and supply of soil resources. We measured soil carbon (C), nitrogen (N), acid\uffe2\uff80\uff90extractable phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), and magnesium (Mg) concentrations and pools, and potential net N mineralization and nitrification rates to evaluate differences in mean values, variance at multiple scales, and fine\uffe2\uff80\uff90scale spatial structure.While comparisons of averaged values rarely indicated that historical land use had an enduring effect on mineral soil or N cycling, differences in variance and spatial structure suggested that former activities continue to influence nutrient distributions by altering their spatial heterogeneity. Patterns differed by element, but generally variance of soil C, N, and Ca decreased and variance of soil P, K, and Mg increased with intensive past land use. Changes in variance were most conspicuous and consistent locally (<28 m), but C, Ca, P, and Mg also exhibited appreciable differences in variance at coarser scales (>150 m). High variability in soil compaction resulted in some changes in scale\uffe2\uff80\uff90dependent patterns of nutrient pool variance compared with nutrient concentration variance. It also affected the variance of N cycling rates, such that mass\uffe2\uff80\uff90based rates varied less and area\uffe2\uff80\uff90based rates varied more in intensively used areas than in reference stands. Geostatistical analysis suggested that past land use homogenized the spatial structure of soil C, K, and P in former pastures. In contrast, logged stands had highly variable spatial patterning for Ca.
These results suggest that land use has persistent, multi\uffe2\uff80\uff90decadal effects on the spatial heterogeneity of soil resources, which may not be detectable when values are averaged across sites. By interacting with patterns of variability in the plant and heterotrophic biota, differences in nutrient distribution and supply could alter the composition and diversity of forest ecosystems. Scale\uffe2\uff80\uff90dependent changes in nutrient heterogeneity could also complicate efforts to determine biogeochemical budgets and cycling rates.
", "keywords": ["Statistics and Probability", "2. Zero hunger", "570", "land-use history", "550", "carbon", "forest ecosystem recovery", "04 agricultural and veterinary sciences", "15. Life on land", "cations", "logging", "nitrogen", "13. Climate action", "0401 agriculture", " forestry", " and fisheries", "grazing", "phosphorus", "semivariograms", "Biology"]}, "links": [{"href": "https://doi.org/10.1890/03-0475"}, {"rel": "related", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/Ecological%20Monographs", "name": "related record", "description": "related record", "type": "application/json"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.1890/03-0475", "name": "item", "description": "10.1890/03-0475", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.1890/03-0475"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2005-02-01T00:00:00Z"}}, {"id": "20.500.11850/548476", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"license": "Open Access", "updated": "2026-06-25T16:32:25Z", "type": "Journal Article", "created": "2022-04-28", "title": "Microbial Community-Level Physiological Profiles and Genetic Prokaryotic Structure of Burned Soils Under Mediterranean Sclerophyll Forests in Central Chile", "description": "Forest fires alter soil microbial communities that are essential to support ecosystem recovery following land burning. These alterations have different responses according to soil abiotic pre- and post-fire conditions and fire severity, among others, and tend to decrease along vegetation recovery over time. Thus, understanding the effects of fires on microbial soil communities is critical to evaluate ecosystem resilience and restoration strategies in fire-prone ecosystems. We studied the state of community-level physiological profiles (CLPPs) and the prokaryotic community structure of rhizosphere and bulk soils from two fire-affected sclerophyll forests (one surveyed 17 months and the other 33 months after fire occurrence) in the Mediterranean climate zone of central Chile. Increases in catabolic activity (by average well color development of CLPPs), especially in the rhizosphere as compared with the bulk soil, were observed in the most recently affected site only. Legacy of land burning was still clearly shaping soil prokaryote community structure, as shown by quantitative PCR (qPCR) and Illumina MiSeq sequencing of the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene, particularly in the most recent fire-affected site. The qPCR copy numbers and alpha diversity indexes (Shannon and Pielou\uffe2\uff80\uff99s evenness) of sequencing data decreased in burned soils at both locations. Beta diversity analyses showed dissimilarity of prokaryote communities at both study sites according to fire occurrence, and NO3\uffe2\uff80\uff93 was the common variable explaining community changes for both of them. Acidobacteria and Rokubacteria phyla significantly decreased in burned soils at both locations, while Firmicutes and Actinobacteria increased. These findings provide a better understanding of the resilience of soil prokaryote communities and their physiological conditions in Mediterranean forests of central Chile following different time periods after fire, conditions that likely influence the ecological processes taking place during recovery of fire-affected ecosystems.
Changes in fire regime of boreal forests in response to climate warming are expected to impact postfire recovery. However, quantitative data on how managed forests sustain and recover from recent fire disturbance are limited.
Two years after a large wildfire in managed even\uffe2\uff80\uff90aged boreal forests in Sweden, we investigated how recovery of aboveground and belowground communities, that is, understory vegetation and soil microbial and faunal communities, responded to variation in the severity of soil (i.e., consumption of soil organic matter) and canopy fires (i.e., tree mortality).
While fire overall enhanced diversity of understory vegetation through colonization of fire adapted plant species, it reduced the abundance and diversity of soil biota. We observed contrasting effects of tree\uffe2\uff80\uff90 and soil\uffe2\uff80\uff90related fire severity on survival and recovery of understory vegetation and soil biological communities. Severe fires that killed overstory Pinus sylvestris promoted a successional stage dominated by the mosses Ceratodon purpureus and Polytrichum juniperinum, but reduced regeneration of tree seedlings and disfavored the ericaceous dwarf\uffe2\uff80\uff90shrub Vaccinium vitis\uffe2\uff80\uff90idaea and the grass Deschampsia flexuosa. Moreover, high tree mortality from fire reduced fungal biomass and changed fungal community composition, in particular that of ectomycorrhizal fungi, and reduced the fungivorous soil Oribatida. In contrast, soil\uffe2\uff80\uff90related fire severity had little impact on vegetation composition, fungal communities, and soil animals. Bacterial communities responded to both tree\uffe2\uff80\uff90 and soil\uffe2\uff80\uff90related fire severity.
Synthesis: Our results 2\uffe2\uff80\uff89years postfire suggest that a change in fire regime from a historically low\uffe2\uff80\uff90severity ground fire regime, with fires that mainly burns into the soil organic layer, to a stand\uffe2\uff80\uff90replacing fire regime with a high degree of tree mortality, as may be expected with climate change, is likely to impact the short\uffe2\uff80\uff90term recovery of stand structure and above\uffe2\uff80\uff90 and belowground species composition of even\uffe2\uff80\uff90aged P.\uffe2\uff80\uff89sylvestris boreal forests.