Wildland fire ash enhances short-term CO2 flux from soil in a Southern African savannah
Open accessAbstract
Savannah fires are the largest contributor to global carbon (C) emissions from vegetation fires as a result of their high frequency and the large area burnt each year. Fires not only emit CO₂ during the combustion process, they can also lead to enhanced CO₂ fluxes from affected soils and vegetation, especially during the initial post-fire recovery period. Wildland fire ash is a ubiquitous product of vegetation fires known to enrich the nutrient content and pyrogenic C (PyC) of the underlying soil, and is expected to stimulate soil C fluxes in the post-fire period. However, the role of ash in post-fire soil C fluxes has rarely been examined. Thus, we investigated the effects of fire and wildland fire ash on CO₂ fluxes from fire-affected savannah soils. Soil and ash material were sampled from three sites in an African savannah in the Kruger National Park (South Africa) before and immediately after experimental fires. CO₂ fluxes from homogenised natural soils and ash were continuously monitored for 28 d in a laboratory incubation experiment under controlled conditions (20 °C, 60% water-holding capacity). Wildland fire ash enhanced CO₂ emissions by up to 3 times compared with pre- and post-fire soils (without ash), likely as a result of the high content of readily available nutrients in the ash. Our results also show that as much as 40% of the total C released over 28 d occurred during a short-lived burst of CO₂ (lasting between 20 and 61 h) following wetting of the post-fire soil with ash samples. This study, although based on homogenised soil and ash material, shows that not considering wildland fire ash during post-fire soil C observations will likely misrepresent natural conditions and might lead to underestimations of short-term post-fire C fluxes. The large differences observed between the post-fire soil with ash, and both the pre- and post-fire soil without ash, clearly suggest that ash is a key player in C fluxes and should be taken into account in post-fire C cycling studies. Our results also highlight the importance of high frequency observations during the short-term period following wetting of fire-affected soils, since bursts of CO₂ upon wetting of burnt soil can comprise a substantial fraction of total C emissions from burnt savannah soil.
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For the South African sub-tropical savanna sites (SAPB1, SAPB3, SAMB), total C contents in ash were an order of magnitude higher than in pre- and post-burn soils.
“Similarly, for the study sites from the sub-tropical savanna in South Africa (SAPB1, SAPB3 and SAMB), we observed total C contents in the ash an order of magnitude higher than in the pre-and post-burn soils (Sánchez-García et al., 2021).”
From Chemical characteristics of wildfire ash across the globe and their environmental and socio-economic implications (2023) · cites this paper as Sánchez-García et al., 2021
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Sánchez-García, C., Santín, C., Neris, J., Sigmund, G., Otero, X. L., Manley, J., González-Rodríguez, G., Belcher, C. M., Cerdà, A., Marcotte, A. L., et al. (2023) · Environment International · doi:10.1016/j.envint.2023.108065 · Cited by 107 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Sánchez-García, C., Santín, C., Doerr, S. H., Strydom, T., & Urbanek, E.
- Affiliations
- Swansea University (GB)
- Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (ES)
- South African National Parks (ZA)
- Corresponding author
- Sánchez-García, Carmen
- Venue
- Soil Biology and Biochemistry
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-09
- Volume
- 160
- Pages
- 108334
- ISSN
- 0038-0717 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3168901222
- Cited by
- 20
- References
- 65
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 1.23
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Licence
- Locations
- Soil Biology and Biochemistry (publishedVersion)
- DIGITAL.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Cronfa (Swansea University) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- Spanish Scientific Research Council
- The Royal Society (DH110189, RG120366, RGF\\EA\\180262)
- Leverhulme Trust (RPG-2014-095)
- H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (663830)
- South African National Parks
- Horizon 2020
- Natural Environment Research Council (NE/R011125/1, SANTC1488)
- 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 › Peatlands and Wetlands Ecology
- Keywords
- savanna burning, soil CO2 flux, pyrogenic carbon, soil respiration, fire-affected soil, soil wetting, Kruger National Park
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