Fire effects on soils: the human dimension

Soils are among the most valuable non-renewable resources on the Earth. They support natural vegetation and human agro-ecosystems, represent the largest terrestrial organic carbon stock, and act as stores and filters for water. Mankind has impacted on soils from its early days in many different ways, with burning being the first human perturbation at landscape scales. Fire has long been used as a tool to fertilize soils and control plant growth, but it can also substantially change vegetation, enhance soil erosion and even cause desertification of previously productive areas. Indeed fire is now regarded by some as the seventh soil-forming factor. Here we explore the effects of fire on soils as influenced by human interference. Human-induced fires have shaped our landscape for thousands of years and they are currently the most common fires in many parts of the world. We first give an overview of fire effect on soils and then focus specifically on (i) how traditional land-use practices involving fire, such as slash-and-burn or vegetation clearing, have affected and still are affecting soils; (ii) the effects of more modern uses of fire, such as fuel reduction or ecological burns, on soils; and (iii) the ongoing and potential future effects on soils of the complex interactions between human-induced land cover changes, climate warming and fire dynamics. This article is part of the themed issue ‘The interaction of fire and mankind’

The impact of land use/land cover scale on modelling urban ecosystem services

Context Urbanisation places increasing stress on ecosystem services; however existing methods and data for testing relationships between service delivery and urban landscapes remain imprecise and uncertain. Unknown impacts of scale are among several factors that complicate research. This study models ecosystem services in the urban area comprising the towns of Milton Keynes, Bedford and Luton which together represent a wide range of the urban forms present in the UK. Objectives The objectives of this study were to test (1) the sensitivity of ecosystem service model outputs to the spatial resolution of input data, and (2) whether any resultant scale dependency is constant across different ecosystem services and model approaches (e.g. stock- versus flow-based). Methods Carbon storage, sediment erosion, and pollination were modelled with the InVEST framework using input data representative of common coarse (25 m) and fine (5 m) spatial resolutions. Results Fine scale analysis generated higher estimates of total carbon storage (9.32 vs. 7.17 kg m−2) and much lower potential sediment erosion estimates (6.4 vs. 18.1 Mg km−2 year−1) than analyses conducted at coarser resolutions; however coarse-scale analysis estimated more abundant pollination service provision. Conclusions Scale sensitivities depend on the type of service being modelled; stock estimates (e.g. carbon storage) are most sensitive to aggregation across scales, dynamic flow models (e.g. sediment erosion) are most sensitive to spatial resolution, and ecological process models involving both stocks and dynamics (e.g. pollination) are sensitive to both. Care must be taken to select model data appropriate to the scale of inquiry

Modelling Hot Spots of Soil Loss by Wind Erosion (SoLoWind) in Western Saxony, Germany

Land Degradation and Development published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. While it needs yet to be assessed whether or not wind erosion in Western Saxony is a major point of concern regarding land degradation and fertility, it has already been recognized that considerable off-site effects of wind erosion in the adjacent regions of Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg are connected to the spread of herbicides, pesticides and dust. So far, no wind erosion assessment for Western Saxony, Germany, exists. The wind erosion model previously applied for Germany (DIN standard 19706) is considering neither changes in wind direction over time nor influences of field size. This study aims to provide a first assessment of wind erosion for Western Saxony by extending the existing DIN model to a multidirectional model on soil loss by wind (SoLoWind) with new controlling factors (changing wind directions, soil cover, mean field length and mean protection zone) combined by fuzzy logic. SoLoWind is used for a local off-site effect evaluation in combination with high-resolution wind speed and wind direction data at a section of the highway A72. The model attributes 3·6% of the arable fields in Western Saxony to the very-high-wind erosion risk class. A relationship between larger fields (greater than 116 ha) and higher proportions (51·7%) of very-high-wind erosion risk can be observed. Sections of the highway A72 might be under high risk according to the modelled off-site effects of wind erosion. The presented applications showed the potential of SoLoWind to support and consult management for protection measures on a regional scale. © 2016 The Authors. Land Degradation and Development published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.The authors would like to thank Jürgen Heinrich and Gudrun Mayer for the technical revision of the model conception and the German Weather Service, the Saxon State Office for the Environment, Agriculture and Geology, the Saxon State Office for Road Construction and Traffic, the Saxon State Ministry of the Environment and Agriculture, the Saxon State Spatial Data and Land Survey Corporation, the Saxon Road Maintenance Depots, OpenStreetMap and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for providing the datasets. We would also like to thank three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A dataset for the flood vulnerability assessment of the upper Cross River basin using morphometric analysis

The on-site collection of data is not only time consuming, but expensive and perhaps near impossible in restive communities within the upper Cross River basin (UCRB). Therefore, the importance of this data cannot be overemphasized. This article presents a Digital Elevation Model (DEM), land use and land cover (LULC) map, soil map, geology map and climatic datasets which enhance the understanding of the physical characteristics of the upper Cross River basin using morphometric analysis. The use of the LULC map, soil map and the DEM in conjunction with the climatic data enhance the creation of the Hydrologic Response Units (HRUs) and the water balance modelling. The simulation of the water balance at the HRU level enables the routing of the runoff to the reaches of the sub-basins and then to the channels. The geology map provides confirmatory information to the morphometric analysis. The compound factor computed from all the derived morphometric parameters enhance the determination of the overall flood potential of the congruent sub-basins

Surface runoff and accelerated erosion in a peri‑urban wellhead area in southeastern Brazil

Degradation of hydrological conditions can adversely impact water resource quality and quantity. This degradation can generate social and economic losses, including losses for users outside the basin area. Therefore, studies focusing on surface runof and accelerated erosion processes are needed to enable interventions that address degradation-induced challenges. In the present study, the surface runof and accelerated erosion potential of the Feijão River basin were presented in charts at a 1:50,000 scale. The Feijão River basin has an area of 243.16 km2 and is used as the main water source for the city of São Carlos, Brazil. Geoenvironmental attributes, such as substrate, climate, relief, soil, water bodies and land cover and use, were integrated and assessed in a GIS environment, using a multicriteria analysis and weighted sum tool. The results show that a large part of the area (86.12% of the basin) exhibits a low surface runof potential and a moderate accelerated erosion potential. Accelerated erosive processes are triggered by changes in soil cover and have a direct relationship with the removal of existing vegetation and implementation of anthropogenic activities. In this case, as well as for most of the areas in southeastern Brazil, extensive grazing followed by sugar cane cultivation was the main driving force of erosion, acting as trigger for accelerated erosive processes at the water source area