Effect of repeated soil heating at different temperatures on microbial activity in two burned soils.

The effect of fire severity and recurrence on the recovery of enzymatic activities (β-glucosidase, urease, acid phosphatase) and bacterial activity was monitored. Unburned and burned soil samples from soil affected by a high severity wildfire and by a low severity experimental fire were subjected in laboratory to a temperature gradient to simulate different fire severities. These samples were subjected to a second laboratory heat treatment to simulate the effect of recurrence. Soil temperature was measured and used to calculate the degree-hours reached by the soil. The results showed: a) a strong effect of repeated soil heating at different temperatures on soil microbial activity; b) a different sensitivity of enzymatic activities and bacterial activity to fire, c) the magnitude of changes in these biochemical properties was related to the extent of heat supplied to samples and the previous fire/heat history, and d) degree-hours are adequate to quantify the severity of heat treatments and to examine their effects on soil microbial activity. The relationships between degree-hours and the different biochemical properties analyzed clearly demonstrate that the usefulness of these biochemical properties to detect the soil microbial community response to the heat stress followed the order: urease activity > acid phosphatase activity > β-glucosidase activity ≫ bacterial activity.

• Publication year

  2021

• Venue

  Science of the Total Environment

• Publication date

  2021-08-03

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149440PMID 34388885
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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