Impact of Fire on the Geology of Soils Essay -- Wildfires and Soil Geo

Fires be an important and healthy process in m all ecosystems. The lack of put downs can cause new define communities to fill an compass . The regular occurrence of fires can keep one plant community dominate, like oak savannas. Fires can leave burnt sticks the coat of trees and clumps of charcoal where bunch grass use to incur, but not for long. An area that was burned will re-grow, grasslands will be green the next exploitation season and forests will typically show new growth in brief after. Somewhere in the process of a fire the soil it travels everyplace is effected. Alterations happen immediately after a fire passes over a soil and can continue years after a fire has gone. Soils are impacted in two main ways by the entering of nutrients form the brunt organic matter (living vegetation and by the pack on the surface of the soil) and the heating of the soil and the nutrients already present in the soil. The greater the duration and intensity of the fire will influence the issue forth of alteration of the soil. A prescribed burn is usually less extreme than a wildfire. Prescribed fire are put on when conditions are right, meaning that the area is not also dry or too large. Wildfires on the other hand can start at any time and burn vast areas and last for days out of control. champion reason wildfires usually are more intense than prescribed burns is because of the fire suppression that lasted most of this century allowed large amounts of fuel to the great unwashed up waiting to be burned. Vegetation in these areas will grow back regardless, but it is the soils that have a harder time recovering from the intense heat. One other difference to consider when looking at the types of fires, is a forest fire verses a grassland fire. Forest fires usually last lengthy and h... ... A., 1989, Effect of simulated forest fire on the availability of N and P in Mediterranean soils Plant Soil. v. 120, p. 57-63. Mroz, G. D., Jurgensen, M. F., Harvey, A. E ., and Larsen, M. J., 1980, Effects of fire on nitrogen in forest floor horizons Soil Science guild of the States Journal, v. 44, p. 395-400.Prieto-Fernandez, A., Villar, M. C., Carballas, M. and Carballas, T., 1993, Short-term personal effects of a wildfire on the nitrogen shape and its mineralization kinetics in an Atlantic forest soil Soil biological science and Biochemistry, v. 25, p. 1657-1664. Ulery, A. L. and Graham, R. C., 1993, Forest fire effects on soil color and caryopsis Soil Science Society of America Journal, v. 57, p. 135-140.Ulery, A. L., Graham, R.C. and Bowen, L. H., 1996, Forest fire effects on phyllosilicates in California Soil Science Society of America Journal, v. 60, p. 309-315.