Impacts of Fire Severity, Post-fire Time, Vegetation Type, and Soil Development Degree on Soil Biogeochemistry in the Mediterranean Region: A Meta-analysis
Description
A systematic literature search was conducted in the Web of Science database to identify publications reporting the impacts of fire on soil nutrient elements in the Mediterranean region. The search was restricted to peer-reviewed articles published in English between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2024 (the past 10 years). The keyword combinations included: (“Mediterranean” OR “Mediterranean basin”) AND (“fire” OR “wildfire” OR “prescribed burning”) AND (“soil” OR “soil properties” OR “soil nutrient” OR “nutrient”). Studies were included based on the following criteria: (a) Wildfires or prescribed burnings in natural ecosystems, with data including both burned sites and unburned control sites; (b) Absence of concurrent confounding disturbances during fire events, such as precipitation, post-fire salvage logging, or grazing; (c) Restricted to surface soil data (as this horizon is both the most intensively sampled in the literature and the most immediately affected by fire, usually the O horizon and A horizon); (d) Sufficient sample size (n ≥ 3). Data can be directly extracted from figures, tables, or text, including means and standard deviations or other data from which standard deviations can be calculated; (e) Exclude meta-analyses and review articles to ensure primary data sources.