Efecto de una lluvia torrencial post-incendio en la repelencia al agua y la velocidad de infiltración de un suelo en un ambiente mediterráneo (NE España)

Intense rainfall events in the Mediterranean environment after severe wildfires can have an impact on soil water repellency. This study seeks to examine the immediate impact and the effect after a year of an intense rainfall event on a Mediterranean forest affected by a high severity wildfire. The aim of this work is to analyze soil water repellency and infiltration capacity rate in three different moments. We sampled soils in the burned area before, immediately afterwards and one year after the rainfall event. The study area was located in Colomers (Baix Empordà, Girona). The first sampling took place three days after the fire, the second four days after the torrential rain (163 mm) in just two days and the third sampling was conducted one year after the fire. During this period natural revegetation took place, as well as logging and mechanical removal of burned trees. Each of the 30 soil samples were collected using the same methodology and the same plot for each of the three samples. In laboratory work we separated the soil fraction less than 2 mm with a sieve. To analyze soil water repellency we used the Water Drop Penetration Time (WDPT) test which measures the time it takes for water drops to infiltrate in each sample. The results showed that the intense rainfall event had an immediate impact on soil water repellency in the infiltration of the drops into the soil and one year after the fire. The soil water repellency was affected by torrential rainfall (immediately after the fire) and by human activity (one year after fire). In the same way it was affected the soil infiltration capacity due to this two events.