Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
Wildfires affect land surface and post-fire geomorphological activity worldwide, increasing surface runoff and soil erosion. However, a global quantitative assessment considering the cumulative effect of several wildfires is still missing. Here we present a global assessment of post-fire soil erosion, considering cumulative wildfire-driven geomorphological changes over the last two decades. We estimate global trends of post-fire soil erosion using a global database on wildfire occurrence and fire severity, and the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model together with the recovery of those burned landscapes by remote sensed data. Our results show that when considering multiple wildfire events, global post-fire soil erosion accounts for 8.1 ± 0.72 Pg annually, representing 19% of the global soil erosion budget and an additional 5.1 ± 0.56 Pg soil erosion annually in comparison to pre-fire conditions. Moreover, soil erosion attributed to the first post-fire year represents 31% of the total soil erosion, whereas the remaining share can be attributed to previous wildfire occurrences. Globally, Africa is the continent that is impacted the most in terms of post-fire soil erosion, given its substantially larger burned area. Our results illustrate the magnitude of post-fire soil erosion globally and therefore support post-fire management actions towards the mitigation and restoration of affected areas and policies towards land-degradation neutrality. Global post-fire soil erosion accounts for approximately 8.1 ± 0.72 Pg per year, or 19%, of total global soil erosion, and Africa is the most impacted continent given its larger burned area, according to a global assessment of soil erosion produced by wildfires over the last 18 years.
Vieira et al. (Thu,) studied this question.