Effects of fire on properties of forest soils: a review
Abstract
Many physical, chemical, mineralogical, and biological soil properties can be affected by forest fires. The effects are chiefly a result of burn severity, which consists of peak temperatures and duration of the fire. Climate, vegetation, and topography of the burnt area control the resilience of the soil system; some fire-induced changes can even be permanent. Low to moderate severity fires, such as most of those prescribed in forest management, promote renovation of the dominant vegetation through elimination of undesired species and transient increase of pH and available nutrients. No irreversible ecosystem change occurs, but the enhancement of hydrophobicity can render the soil less able to soak up water and more prone to erosion. Severe fires, such as wildfires, generally have several negative effects on soil. They cause significant removal of organic matter, deterioration of both structure and porosity, considerable loss of nutrients through volatilisation, ash entrapment in smoke columns, leaching and erosion, and marked alteration of both quantity and specific composition of microbial and soil-dwelling invertebrate communities. However, despite common perceptions, if plants succeed in promptly recolonising the burnt area, the pre-fire level of most properties can be recovered and even enhanced. This work is a review of the up-to-date literature dealing with changes imposed by fires on properties of forest soils. Ecological implications of these changes are described.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Fire directly impacts the upper organic horizons via pyrolysis and combustion reactions, including physical loss of the organic horizon, and the underlying mineral soil by conductive and advective heating during a fire.
“Fire directly impacts the upper organic horizons via pyrolysis and combustion reactions, including physical loss of the organic horizon, and the underlying mineral soil by conductive and advective heating during a fire (Araya, Fogel, & Berhe, 2017;Certini, 2005;Neary, Ryan, & DeBano, 2008).”
From Fire as a fundamental ecological process: Research advances and frontiers (2020) · cites this paper as Certini, 2005
Cites
The influence of island area on ecosystem properties
Wardle, D. A., Zackrisson, O., Hörnberg, G., & Gallet, C. (1997) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.277.5330.1296 · Cited by 641 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Frank, D., Reichstein, M., Bahn, M., Thonicke, K., Frank, D., Mahecha, M. D., Smith, P., van der Velde, M., Vicca, S., Babst, F., et al. (2015) · Global Change Biology · doi:10.1111/gcb.12916 · Cited by 1,037 · see citing works
Fire as a fundamental ecological process: Research advances and frontiers
McLauchlan, K. K., Higuera, P. E., Miesel, J., Rogers, B. M., Schweitzer, J., Shuman, J. K., Tepley, A. J., Varner, J. M., Veblen, T. T., Adalsteinsson, S. A., et al. (2020) · Journal of Ecology · doi:10.1111/1365-2745.13403 · Cited by 729 · see citing works
Ullah, A., Bano, A., & Khan, N. (2021) · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · doi:10.3389/fsufs.2021.618092 · Cited by 295 · see citing works
Wildfires Alter Forest Watersheds and Threaten Drinking Water Quality
Hohner, A. K., Rhoades, C. C., Wilkerson, P., & Rosario-Ortiz, F. L. (2019) · Accounts of Chemical Research · doi:10.1021/acs.accounts.8b00670 · Cited by 237 · see citing works
Paul, M. J., LeDuc, S. D., Lassiter, M. G., Moorhead, L. C., Noyes, P. D., & Leibowitz, S. G. (2022) · Water Resources Research · doi:10.1029/2021wr030699 · Cited by 219 · see citing works
“In contrast, phosphorus is generally not lost through volatilization (Certini et al., 2005), and total”
InfluentialRhoades, C. C., Entwistle, D., & Butler, D. (2011) · International Journal of Wildland Fire · doi:10.1071/wf09086 · Cited by 178 · see citing works
Úbeda, X., Pereira, P., Outeiro, L., & Martin, D. A. (2009) · Land Degradation & Development · doi:10.1002/ldr.930 · Cited by 158 · see citing works
Mäkipää, R., Abramoff, R., Adamczyk, B., Baldy, V., Biryol, C., Bosela, M., Casals, P., Curiel Yuste, J., Dondini, M., Filipek, S., et al. (2023) · Forest Ecology and Management · doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2022.120637 · Cited by 158 · see citing works
Campos, I., Abrantes, N., Keizer, J. J., Vale, C., & Pereira, P. (2016) · Science of The Total Environment · doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.01.190 · Cited by 152 · see citing works
Impacts of fire and fire surrogate treatments on forest soil properties: A meta-analytical approach
Boerner, R. E. J., Huang, J., & Hart, S. C. (2009) · Ecological Applications · doi:10.1890/07-1767.1 · Cited by 142 · see citing works
Wildfire Altering Terrestrial Precursors of Disinfection Byproducts in Forest Detritus
Wang, J.-J., Dahlgren, R. A., Erşan, M. S., Karanfil, T., & Chow, A. T. (2015) · Environmental Science & Technology · doi:10.1021/es505836m · Cited by 134 · see citing works
Pereira, P., Úbeda, X., Martin, D., Mataix-Solera, J., & Guerrero, C. (2011) · Environmental Research · doi:10.1016/j.envres.2010.09.002 · Cited by 109 · see citing works
Black carbon and soil properties at historical charcoal production sites in Germany
Borchard, N., Ladd, B., Eschemann, S., Hegenberg, D., Möseler, B. M., & Amelung, W. (2014) · Geoderma · doi:10.1016/j.geoderma.2014.05.007 · Cited by 107 · see citing works
Kim, E. J., Choi, S.-D., & Chang, Y.-S. (2011) · Environmental Science and Pollution Research · doi:10.1007/s11356-011-0515-3 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
Oliveira-Filho, E. C., Brito, D. Q., Dias, Z. M. B., Guarieiro, M. S., Carvalho, E. L., Fascineli, M. L., Niva, C. C., & Grisolia, C. K. (2018) · Science of The Total Environment · doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.11.051 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
Williams, C. J., Pierson, F. B., Robichaud, P. R., & Boll, J. (2014) · International Journal of Wildland Fire · doi:10.1071/wf12161 · Cited by 66 · see citing works
Santín, C., Doerr, S. H., Shakesby, R. A., Bryant, R., Sheridan, G. J., Lane, P. N. J., Smith, H. G., & Bell, T. L. (2012) · European Journal of Forest Research · doi:10.1007/s10342-012-0595-8 · Cited by 60 · see citing works
Aquatic ecotoxicity of ashes from Brazilian savanna wildfires
Brito, D. Q., Passos, C. J. S., Muniz, D. H. F., & Oliveira-Filho, E. C. (2017) · Environmental Science and Pollution Research · doi:10.1007/s11356-017-9578-0 · Cited by 57 · see citing works
LeDuc, S. D., & Rothstein, D. E. (2007) · Soil Biology and Biochemistry · doi:10.1016/j.soilbio.2007.05.029 · Cited by 57 · see citing works
Incidence and recurrence of large forest fires in mainland Portugal
Ferreira-Leite, F., Bento-Gonçalves, A., Vieira, A., Nunes, A., & Lourenço, L. (2016) · Natural Hazards · doi:10.1007/s11069-016-2474-y · Cited by 44 · see citing works
Makoto, K., Choi, D., Hashidoko, Y., & Koike, T. (2011) · Biology and Fertility of Soils · doi:10.1007/s00374-010-0518-0 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
Godwin, D., Kobziar, L., & Robertson, K. (2017) · Forests · doi:10.3390/f8080274 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Williams, J. M., & Thomas, S. C. (2023) · Restoration Ecology · doi:10.1111/rec.13861 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Abrantes, N., Campos, I., Junior, C., Coelho, C., & Keizer, J. J. (2025) · Journal of Hazardous Materials · doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2025.138097 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Yellow Perch (<i>Perca flavescens</i>) Mercury Unaffected by Wildland Fires in Northern Minnesota
Riggs, C. E., Kolka, R. K., Nater, E. A., Witt, E. L., Wickman, T. R., Woodruff, L. G., & Butcher, J. T. (2017) · Journal of Environmental Quality · doi:10.2134/jeq2016.10.0418 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Araujo, R. M. G., Schafaschek, A. M., Bezerra, C. W. F., Nogueira, D. J., Grassi, M. T., Navarro-Silva, M. A., & Figueiredo, B. R. S. (2025) · Journal of Hazardous Materials · doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.136914 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
- Authors
- Certini, G.
- Affiliations
- University of Florence (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Certini, Giacomo
- ORCID
- Certini, Giacomo
- Venue
- Oecologia
- Published
- 2005-02-02
- Volume
- 143
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1-10
- ISSN
- 0029-8549 (ISSN-L)
- 1432-1939
- OpenAlex
- W2137764911
- Cited by
- 2,944
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 208 · 2025: 227 · 2024: 199 · 2023: 213 · 2022: 223 · 2021: 203 · 2020: 182 · 2019: 183 · 2018: 157 · 2017: 161 · 2016: 156 · 2015: 147 · 2014: 141 · 2013: 112 · 2012: 101
- FWCI
- 33.66
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Oecologia (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Florence Research (University of Florence) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Fire effects on ecosystems
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Rangeland and Wildlife Management
- Keywords
- forest fires, soil properties, burn severity, wildfire effects, prescribed burning, soil organic matter loss, soil structure, soil erosion, soil water repellency, soil pH, soil microbial communities, soil invertebrates, soil resilience
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Carbon, Fires, Invertebrates, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Soil, Soil Microbiology, Trees, Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
