scholarly journals Water Infiltration after Prescribed Fire and Soil Mulching with Fern in Mediterranean Forests

Hydrology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 95
Author(s):  
Bruno Gianmarco Carrà ◽  
Giuseppe Bombino ◽  
Pietro Denisi ◽  
Pedro Antonio Plaza-Àlvarez ◽  
Manuel Esteban Lucas-Borja ◽  
...  

Prescribed fire is commonly used to reduce the wildfire risk in Mediterranean forests, but the soil’s hydrological response after fire is contrasting in literature experiences. The mulch treatment can limit the increases in runoff and erosion in the short term after a fire. The use of fern is preferable to straw, due its large availability in forests. However, no experiences of post-fire treatment with fern mulch have been found in the literature and therefore the mulching effectiveness has not been evaluated. This study has measured water infiltration rate (IR) and water repellency (SWR) using a rainfall simulator in three Mediterranean forest stands (pine, oak and chestnut) of Calabria (Southern Italy) after a prescribed fire and mulching treatment with fern in comparison to unburned soil. Prescribed fire reduced water infiltration in all forests in the short term compared to the unburned conditions, and increased SWR in pine and oak forests. These reductions in IR in the time window of disturbance after fire increased the runoff generation capacity in all soils, but had a lower effect on peak flows. However, soil mulching with fern limited the runoff rates and peak flows compared to the burned soils, but this treatment was less effective in pine forest. One year after fire, IR increased in burned soils (treated or not) over time, and SWR disappeared. The effects of mulching have disappeared after some months from fire. The study confirms the usefulness of mulching in broadleaves forest in the short term, in order to control the hydrological effects of prescribed fire in Mediterranean forests. Both post-fire management techniques should be instead adopted with caution in conifer forests.

Author(s):  
Bruno Gianmarco Carra ◽  
Giuseppe Bombino ◽  
Manuel Esteban Lucas-Borja ◽  
Adele Muscolo ◽  
Federico Romeo ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael P. Stockinger ◽  
Heye R. Bogena ◽  
Andreas Lücke ◽  
Christine Stumpp ◽  
Harry Vereecken

Abstract. The time precipitation needs to travel through a catchment to its outlet is an important descriptor of a catchment's susceptibility to pollutant contamination, nutrient loss and hydrological functioning. The fast component of total water flow can be estimated by the fraction of young water (Fyw) which is the percentage of streamflow younger than three months. Fyw is calculated by comparing the amplitudes of sine waves fitted to seasonal precipitation and streamflow tracer signals. This is usually done for the complete tracer time series available neglecting annual differences in the amplitudes of longer time series. Considering inter-annual amplitude differences, we here employed a moving time window of one-year length in weekly time steps over a 4.5-years δ18O tracer time series to calculate 189 Fyw results. The results were then tested against the following null hypotheses, defining 2 % difference in Fyw as significant based on results of previous studies: (1) Fyw does not deviate more than ±2% from the mean of all Fyw results indicating long-term invariance. Larger deviations would indicate either flow path changes or a change in the relative contribution of different flow paths; (2) for any four-week window Fyw does not change more than ±2 % indicating short-term invariance. Larger deviations would indicate a high sensitivity of Fyw to a 1–4 weeks shift in the start of a one-year sampling campaign; (3) for a given calendar month Fyw does not change more than ±2 % indicating seasonal invariance of Fyw. In our study, all three null hypotheses were rejected. Thus, the Fyw results were time-variable, showed a high variability in the chosen sampling time and had no pronounced seasonality. Based on high short-term variability of Fyw when the mean adjusted R² was below 0.2 we recommend that a low R2 should be regarded as indicating potentially highly uncertain Fyw results. Furthermore, while investigated individual meteorological factors could not sufficiently explain variations of Fyw, the runoff coefficient showed a moderate negative correlation of r = −0.54 with Fyw. This indicated that when annual runoff exceeded precipitation the catchment received the water deficit from storage which is old water causing a decrease in Fyw. The results of this study suggest that care must be taken when comparing Fyw of catchments that were based on different calculation time periods.


Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 472
Author(s):  
Tomáš Orfánus ◽  
Anton Zvala ◽  
Malvína Čierniková ◽  
Dagmar Stojkovová ◽  
Viliam Nagy ◽  
...  

The paper deals with measurements of water infiltration carried out on a well-developed forest floor formed by needle-leaf litter of Norway spruce. Three field methods (tension disk permeameter, single-ring infiltrometer and Guelph permeameter) were used to determine the soil hydraulic conductivity. The results were strongly influenced by the water repellency at the interface between the O- and A-horizons. This interface was severely water repellent during the hot and dry summer season, regardless of the generally humid mountain climate of the High Tatras foothill. The single-ring method paradoxically provided lower hydraulic conductivity (3.2 × 10−4 ± 1.3 × 10−4) compared to the tension disk permeameter (8.5 × 10−4 ± 3.3 × 10−4) due to the presence of the water-repellent O/A-interface. This effect was also observed with the Guelph permeameter method, which gave the lowest value (5.6 × 10−5 ± 4.3 × 10−5). Abrupt retardation of infiltration on the water-repellent interface may generate shallow subsurface runoff (as was proved by the irrigation experiment) or litter splash during extreme rainfall events and promote water flow to deeper soil horizons through preferential pathways. The observed effects of the forest floor on rainfall infiltration will depend on the seasonal variability of soil water repellency. Although the forest floor is a source of hydrophobic substances that cause water repellency at the O/A-interface and can trigger runoff generation, at the same time its cohesive duff layer protects the forest soil from erosion.


VASA ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 120-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asciutto ◽  
Lindblad

Background: The aim of this study is to report the short-term results of catheter-directed foam sclerotherapy (CDFS) in the treatment of axial saphenous vein incompetence. Patients and methods: Data of all patients undergoing CDFS for symptomatic primary incompetence of the great or small saphenous vein were prospectively collected. Treatment results in terms of occlusion rate and patients’ grade of satisfaction were analysed. All successfully treated patients underwent clinical and duplex follow-up examinations one year postoperatively. Results: Between September 2006 and September 2010, 357 limbs (337 patients) were treated with CDFS at our institution. Based on the CEAP classification, 64 were allocated to clinical class C3 , 128 to class C4, 102 to class C5 and 63 to class C6. Of the 188 patients who completed the one year follow up examination, 67 % had a complete and 14 % a near complete obliteration of the treated vessel. An ulcer-healing rate of 54 % was detected. 92 % of the patients were satisfied with the results of treatment. We registered six cases of thrombophlebitis and two cases of venous thromboembolism, all requiring treatment. Conclusions: The short-term results of CDFS in patients with axial vein incompetence are acceptable in terms of occlusion and complications rates.


Author(s):  
Yuhong Jiang

Abstract. When two dot arrays are briefly presented, separated by a short interval of time, visual short-term memory of the first array is disrupted if the interval between arrays is shorter than 1300-1500 ms ( Brockmole, Wang, & Irwin, 2002 ). Here we investigated whether such a time window was triggered by the necessity to integrate arrays. Using a probe task we removed the need for integration but retained the requirement to represent the images. We found that a long time window was needed for performance to reach asymptote even when integration across images was not required. Furthermore, such window was lengthened if subjects had to remember the locations of the second array, but not if they only conducted a visual search among it. We suggest that a temporal window is required for consolidation of the first array, which is vulnerable to disruption by subsequent images that also need to be memorized.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (S1) ◽  
pp. e000125
Author(s):  
Khyati Vaja ◽  
Mukesh Suvera

Aims and Objectives: To know the most common surgical problems in pediatric patients presented with inguino-scrotal swellings and management done routinely. Methodology: This study was carried out in the department of general surgery, Sharadaben hospital and pediatric surgery of VS hospital, Ahmedabad. The cases were studied for a period of about one year (January, 2017 to Dec, 2017) and all children below 12 years of age, presenting to us with inguinoscrotal swellings were included in this study. The information was analysed in terms of age, diagnosis, procedure carried out and outcome. Results: Amongst the 150 children under the age of 12 years, 143 patients were males and 7 were females. Among these 150, 52 cases were of hydrocoele, 70 cases of hernia (of which 63 were males and 7 were females), 25 cases of undescended testis and 3 cases of epididymo orchitis were documented. All cases underwent simple herniotomy for hernia and hydrocoele, orchidopexy for undescended testis. The length of hospital stay ranged from 2-4 days with mean of 2.46 days. 11 children in the study were documented to have short term complications, all of which were recognised in the hospital and managed with good results. Conclusion: Hernia and Hydrocoele in children are often congenital and diagnosed clinically (history and examination). Indirect inguinal hernia are more common than other groin hernias. Open herniotomy is the operation of choice for inguinal hernia in children.


Diabetes ◽  
1984 ◽  
Vol 33 (10) ◽  
pp. 995-1001 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Perlman ◽  
R. M. Ehrlich ◽  
R. M. Filler ◽  
A. M. Albisser

1989 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 119-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Bhana

The objective of this study is to determine whether companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange overreacted to unexpected favourable and unfavourable company-specific news events during the period 1970 - 1984. The JSE appears to be inefficient in reacting to the announcement of unfavourable news; economically significant abnormal returns up to one year following the event are observed. The JSE does not appear to overreact to news of a favourable nature, there is only weak evidence of short-term overreaction. The selling pressure caused by panic selling could depress prices well below levels justified by the unfavourable news. The magnitude of the overreaction to unfavourable news is sufficient to enable astute investors to outperform the market by taking positions in these securities. Knowledge of the pattern of market overreaction can also be of value to investors for transactions that are to take place anyway.


Fire Ecology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessie M. Dodge ◽  
Eva K. Strand ◽  
Andrew T. Hudak ◽  
Benjamin C. Bright ◽  
Darcy H. Hammond ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Fuel treatments are widely used to alter fuels in forested ecosystems to mitigate wildfire behavior and effects. However, few studies have examined long-term ecological effects of interacting fuel treatments (commercial harvests, pre-commercial thinnings, pile and burning, and prescribed fire) and wildfire. Using annually fitted Landsat satellite-derived Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) curves and paired pre-fire treated and untreated field sites, we tested changes in the differenced NBR (dNBR) and years since treatment as predictors of biophysical attributes one and nine years after the 2007 Egley Fire Complex in Oregon, USA. We also assessed short- and long-term fuel treatment impacts on field-measured attributes one and nine years post fire. Results One-year post-fire burn severity (dNBR) was lower in treated than in untreated sites across the Egley Fire Complex. Annual NBR trends showed that treated sites nearly recovered to pre-fire values four years post fire, while untreated sites had a slower recovery rate. Time since treatment and dNBR significantly predicted tree canopy and understory green vegetation cover in 2008, suggesting that tree canopy and understory vegetation cover increased in areas that were treated recently pre fire. Live tree density was more affected by severity than by pre-fire treatment in either year, as was dead tree density one year post fire. In 2008, neither treatment nor severity affected percent cover of functional groups (shrub, graminoid, forb, invasive, and moss–lichen–fungi); however, by 2016, shrub, graminoid, forb, and invasive cover were higher in high-severity burn sites than in low-severity burn sites. Total fuel loads nine years post fire were higher in untreated, high-severity burn sites than any other sites. Tree canopy cover and density of trees, saplings, and seedlings were lower nine years post fire than one year post fire across treatments and severity, whereas live and dead tree basal area, understory surface cover, and fuel loads increased. Conclusions Pre-fire fuel treatments effectively lowered the occurrence of high-severity wildfire, likely due to successful pre-fire tree and sapling density and surface fuels reduction. This study also quantified the changes in vegetation and fuels from one to nine years post fire. We suggest that low-severity wildfire can meet prescribed fire management objectives of lowering surface fuel accumulations while not increasing overstory tree mortality.


Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 95
Author(s):  
Yuan Gong ◽  
Christina L. Staudhammer ◽  
Susanne Wiesner ◽  
Gregory Starr ◽  
Yinlong Zhang

Understanding plant phenological change is of great concern in the context of global climate change. Phenological models can aid in understanding and predicting growing season changes and can be parameterized with gross primary production (GPP) estimated using the eddy covariance (EC) technique. This study used nine years of EC-derived GPP data from three mature subtropical longleaf pine forests in the southeastern United States with differing soil water holding capacity in combination with site-specific micrometeorological data to parameterize a photosynthesis-based phenological model. We evaluated how weather conditions and prescribed fire led to variation in the ecosystem phenological processes. The results suggest that soil water availability had an effect on phenology, and greater soil water availability was associated with a longer growing season (LOS). We also observed that prescribed fire, a common forest management activity in the region, had a limited impact on phenological processes. Dormant season fire had no significant effect on phenological processes by site, but we observed differences in the start of the growing season (SOS) between fire and non-fire years. Fire delayed SOS by 10 d ± 5 d (SE), and this effect was greater with higher soil water availability, extending SOS by 18 d on average. Fire was also associated with increased sensitivity of spring phenology to radiation and air temperature. We found that interannual climate change and periodic weather anomalies (flood, short-term drought, and long-term drought), controlled annual ecosystem phenological processes more than prescribed fire. When water availability increased following short-term summer drought, the growing season was extended. With future climate change, subtropical areas of the Southeastern US are expected to experience more frequent short-term droughts, which could shorten the region’s growing season and lead to a reduction in the longleaf pine ecosystem’s carbon sequestration capacity.


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