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A new model for Mediterranean forest fire regime assessment is presented and discussed. The model is based on the experimental evidence that fire is due to both hydrological and ecological processes and the relative role of fuel load versus fuel moisture is an important driver in fire ecology. Diverse scenarios are analyzed where either the hydrological forcing or the feedback between fire and hydrological characterization of the site is changed. The model outcome demonstrates that the two-way interaction between hydrological processes, biology, and fire regime drives the ecosystem toward a typical fire regime that may be altered either by an evolution of the biological characterization of the site or by a change of the hydrological forcing. This tenet implies that not every fire regime is compatible with the ecohydrological characterization of the site under study. This means that natural (nonantropogenic) fire cannot be modeled as an arbitrary external forcing because the coupled hydrological and biological processes determines its statistical characterization, and conversely, the fire regime affects the soil moisture availability and the outcome of different species competition under possible water stress. The new modeling approach presented here, when provided by a proper model parameterization, can advance the capability in predicting and managing fires in ecosystems influenced by climate and land use changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Rainfall simulator experiments were carried out in the Liguria region, Italy, immediately after a forest fire in early August, 2003, to evaluate the effects of forest fire on soil hydraulic properties, runoff and erosion. Two adjacent 30m2 plots were set up with common physiographic features, and the same fire history, except for the fire of August 2003, which burned only one of them. Since both plots were previously subject to the passage of fire in March 1997, one compares the hydrologic and sedimentologic response of an area burned in year 2003 (B03) with that of an area burnt 6 years before (B97). Each rainfall simulation consisted of a single 60min application of rainfall with constant intensity of about 76mm h−1. The results show runoff ratio, evaluated for different pre-event soil moisture conditions, ranging from 0% to 2% for B97 plot, and from 21% to 41% for B03. Runoff ratio for the recently burned plot was 60 times higher than for the plot burned six years before, under wet conditions, and 20 times higher, under very wet conditions. A large increase in sediment production also was measured in B03 plot, as compared with that in B97 plot. Suspended sediment yield from B03 plot was more than two orders of magnitude higher than that from B97 plot in all the simulated events. The high soil losses measured immediately after burning indicate that effective post-fire rehabilitation programs must be carried out to reduce soil erosion in recently burned areas. However, the results for the plot burned six year prior show that recovery of the hydrological properties of the soil occurs after the transient post-fire modification. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]