Short-term effects of burn severity on ecosystem multifunctionality in the northwest Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

Severe wildfires cause important changes in vegetation and soil properties in Mediterranean ecosystems. The aim of this work was to evaluate ecosystem multifunctionality through the study of burn severity short-term effects on different ecosystem functions and services. We selected the Cabrera wildfire (2017) in northwest Spain. Burn severity was quantified using CBI index, differentiating four categories: unburned, low, moderate, and high severity. We established a total of 126 field plots, where one year after fire the vegetation was evaluated and soil samples for the analysis of chemical, biochemical, and microbiological properties were collected. Sentinel-2 images were used to obtain vegetation biophysical variables. Vegetation and soil variables were directly applied as indicators, or used to calculate other indicators, which were standardized and selected to define ecosystem functions and services: (1) photosynthetic activity, soil fertility, nutrient cycling, and soil quality (supporting ecosystem service); (2) grass production for livestock and wood production (provisioning ecosystem service); (3) climate regulation and erosion protection (regulating ecosystem services), and (4) woody species diversity and aesthetic value (cultural ecosystem services). The combination of these functions and services defined ecosystem multifunctionality. The main results showed that burn severity negatively affected most ecosystem functions, as well as the ecosystem services of supporting, provisioning, and regulating, and hence, ecosystem multifunctionality. However, the soil fertility function significantly increased with high burn severity, while woody species diversity and aesthetic value functions and, consequently, the cultural ecosystem service, only decreased under the effect of moderate severity. These results provide a starting point to study burn severity effects from a multifunctional approach in Mediterranean ecosystems.

Keywords: Burn severity; Ecosystem functions; Ecosystem services; Mediterranean ecosystems; Multifunctionality; Wildfires.