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Pile burns as a proxy for high severity wildfire impacts on soil microbiomes

Authors :
Julie A. Fowler
Amelia R. Nelson
Emily K. Bechtold
Raegan Paul
Alexandra M. Wettengel
Michael A. McNorvell
Camille S. Stevens-Rumann
Timothy S. Fegel
Erik Anderson
Charles C. Rhoades
Michael J. Wilkins
Source :
Geoderma, Vol 448, Iss , Pp 116982- (2024)
Publication Year :
2024
Publisher :
Elsevier, 2024.

Abstract

Wildfires in the western US are increasing in frequency, size, and severity. These disturbances alter soil microbiome structure and function, with greater fire severity leading to more pronounced impacts to bacterial, archaeal, and fungal communities. These changes have implications for the provisioning of microbially-mediated ecosystem services (e.g., carbon sequestration, clean water supplies) typically associated with forested watersheds. Challenges in sampling wildfire-impacted areas immediately post-burn have limited our assessment of short-term (i.e., days to weeks) changes in the soil microbiome and understanding of how microbial populations may influence post-fire biogeochemistry and ecosystem recovery. The identification of potential high severity wildfire proxies may help address some of these knowledge gaps. One potential proxy is pile burns scars, which are produced from a set of common techniques for fuel disposal and site preparation in conifer forests throughout the western US and beyond. We sampled depth-resolved layers from fire-impacted soil and combusted litter and woody materials in a series of recent pile burn scars near West Yellowstone, Montana and nearby unburned mineral soil controls to assess whether the pile burn scars exhibited microbial signatures characteristic of forest soils impacted by recent high severity wildfire. Changes in soil carbon and nitrogen chemistry and patterns of microbial alpha and beta diversity broadly aligned with those observed following wildfire, particularly the enrichment of so-called ‘pyrophilous’ taxa. Furthermore, many of the taxa enriched in burned soils likely encoded putative traits that benefit microorganisms colonizing these environments, such as the potential for fast growth or utilization of pyrogenic carbon substrates. We suggest that pile burn scars may represent a useful proxy along the experimental gradient from muffle furnace or pyrocosm studies to largescale prescribed burns in the field to advance understanding of the soil (and related layers, like ash) microbiome following high severity wildfires, particularly when coupled with experimental manipulation. Finally, we discuss existing research gaps that experimentally manipulated pile burns could be utilized to address.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
18726259
Volume :
448
Issue :
116982-
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Geoderma
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.0e5fcff81f4421adc8351bd0e159dd
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2024.116982