Response of soil microbial communities to fire and fire-fighting chemicals Original Research Article

Worldwide, fire-fighting chemicals are rapidly gaining acceptance as an effective and efficient tool in wildfires control and in prescribed burns for habitat management. However, despite its widespread use as water additives to control and/or slow the spread of fire, information concerning the impact of these compounds on soil ecosystems is scarce. In the present work we examine, under field conditions, the response of the microbial communities to three different fire-chemicals at normal doses of application. The study was performed with a Humic Cambisol over granite under heath, located in the temperate humid zone (Galicia, NW Spain) with the following treatments: unburned soil (US) and burned soil added with water alone (BS) or mixed with the foaming agent Auxquímica RFC-88 at 1% (BS + Fo), Firesorb at 1.5% (BS + Fi) and FR Cross ammonium polyphosphate at 20% (BS + Ap). The microbial mass (microbial C), activity (β-glucosidase, urease) and community structure [phospholipids fatty acids (PLFA) pattern] were measured on soil samples collected at different sampling times during a 5 year period after a prescribed fire. The results showed a negative short-term effect of the fire on the microbial properties. The microbial biomass and activity levels tended to recover with time; however, changes in the microbial community structure (PLFA pattern) were still detected 5 years after the prescribed fire. Compared to the burned soil added with water, the ammonium polyphosphate and the Firesorb treatments were the fire-fighting chemicals that showed a higher influence on the microbial communities over the whole study period. Our data indicated the usefulness of the PLFAs analysis to detect the long-term impact of both fire and fire-fighting chemicals on the soil microbial communities and hence on the soil quality of forest ecosystems.