(Urgency Proposal) The catastrophic Victoria wildfires: impact of extreme burn severity on the soil system

（紧急提案）维多利亚灾难性野火：极端烧伤严重程度对土壤系统的影响

• 批准号: NE/H00131X/1
• 负责人: Stefan Doerr
• 金额: $ 6.73万
• 依托单位: Swansea University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2009 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FH00131X%2F1
• 关键词: Urgency; Proposal; catastrophic; Victoria; wildfires

The catastrophic wildfires near Melbourne on Feb. 7 2009, which caused the tragic loss of many lives, occurred during an unprecedented extreme of fire weather. Dry northerly winds gusting up to 100 km/h coincided with the highest temperatures ever recorded in this region. These conditions, combined with the very high biomass of mature eucalypt forests, very low fuel moisture conditions and steep slopes, generated burning conditions of hitherto unprecedented severity. Virtually no data exist on the impact of such extreme burning conditions on the soil system. The aim of this urgency proposal is to collect a reference soil sample set, made available to the scientific community for future analyses, and obtain exploratory soil property data enabling the effects of this very extreme burn severity on the soil system to be determined. This allows a much more accurate prediction of the impacts of very severe wildfires, which are expected to become more common with global warming and affect, for example, vegetation recovery, hydrological response, soil erodibility, sediment transfer and downstream impacts of ash and soil eroded from hillslopes. Where fires occur near major population centres (as is the case for the Melbourne fires), they often coincide with low reservoir water levels and pose a major pollution risk for water bodies following heavy rainfall. Although some fires are still active in Victoria, sample collection is urgent because once major southern-hemisphere winter rainfall events occur, soil surface material will be eroded, mixed and redistributed, closing this brief window of opportunity.

2009年2月7日发生在墨尔本附近的灾难性野火，造成许多人悲惨的生命损失，发生在前所未有的极端火灾天气中。干燥的北风高达每小时100公里，恰逢该地区有记录以来的最高气温。这些条件，再加上成熟桉树林非常高的生物量，非常低的燃料湿度条件和陡峭的斜坡，造成了迄今为止前所未有的严重燃烧条件。关于这种极端燃烧条件对土壤系统的影响，几乎没有数据。这项紧急建议的目的是收集供科学界用于未来分析的参考土壤样本集，并获得探索性土壤特性数据，从而能够确定这种极端烧伤对土壤系统的影响。这使得能够更准确地预测非常严重的野火的影响，预计随着全球变暖，野火将变得更加常见，并影响到例如植被恢复、水文反应、土壤可蚀性、沉积物转移以及从山坡侵蚀的灰烬和土壤的下游影响。在主要人口中心附近发生的火灾(如墨尔本火灾)，通常与水库水位较低重合，并在暴雨后对水体构成重大污染风险。尽管维多利亚州的一些火灾仍在发生，但样本收集是紧迫的，因为一旦南半球发生重大冬季降雨事件，土壤表面物质将被侵蚀、混合和重新分配，从而关闭这一短暂的机会之窗。

项目成果

Abundance and composition of free and aggregate-occluded carbohydrates and lignin in two forest soils as affected by wildfires of different severity

• DOI: 10.1016/j.geoderma.2015.01.006
• 发表时间: 2015-05
• 期刊: Geoderma
• 影响因子: 6.1
• 作者: G. Mastrolonardo;C. Rumpel;C. Forte;S. Doerr;G. Certini