Impacts of Post‐Fire Mulching and Salvage Logging on Ecosystem Recovery 9 Years After a Severe Wildfire in Semi‐Arid Mediterranean Forests

Wildfires severely affect forest ecosystems, degrading soil quality and reducing biodiversity. Post‐fire management aims to mitigate these impacts and accelerate ecological recovery, but little research has explored their long‐term effects on soil and plant diversity. Only a few studies have assessed post‐fire management impacts beyond the short term. To fill this gap, this study provides evidence of the transient effects of mulching and logging after nearly a decade from fire and post‐fire management. Changes in ground cover, soil properties and plant diversity due to post‐fire management (mulching with straw and salvage logging) were measured 9 years after a severe wildfire in a Mediterranean pine forest. After burning, four groups of experimental plots were subjected to logging, mulching, logging and mulching, or left untreated (as a control). To assess these medium‐term responses, surveys at plots were carried out to analyse soil physico‐chemical and biochemical parameters together with plant diversity indexes across the four treatments. After 9 years, ground cover and most soil properties were no longer affected by the treatments. Only slight changes in β‐Glucosidase and microbial carbon as well as in phosphorous remained after this long time. The effects of both treatments on plant diversity became non‐significant in comparison to burned but untreated soils. Overall, we conclude that these strategies are more effective for short‐term recovery of burned forest ecosystems, while their impacts vanish several years after their implementation.