@article{ref1,
title="Wildfires in Europe: burned soils require attention",
journal="Environmental research",
year="2022",
author="Vieira, D. C. S. and Borrelli, P. and Jahanianfard, D. and Benali, A. and Scarpa, S. and Panagos, P.",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="Annually, millions of hectares of land are affected by wildfires worldwide, disrupting ecosystems functioning by affecting on-site vegetation, soil, and above- and belowground biodiversity, but also triggering erosive off-site impacts such as water-bodies contamination or mudflows. Here, we present a soil erosion assessment following the 2017's wildfires at the European scale, including an analysis of vegetation recovery and soil erosion mitigation potential. <br><br>RESULTS indicate a sharp increase in soil losses with 19.4 million Mg additional erosion in the first post-fire year when compared to unburned conditions. Over five years, 44 million Mg additional soil losses were estimated, and 46% of the burned area presented no signs of full recovery. Post-fire mitigation could attenuate these impacts by 63-77%, reducing soil erosion to background levels by the 4th post-fire year. Our insights may help identifying target policies to reduce land degradation, as identified in the European Union Soil, Forest, and Biodiversity strategies.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0013-9351",
doi="10.1016/j.envres.2022.114936",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2022.114936"
}