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Soil Chemical Properties and Trace Elements after Wildfire in Mediterranean Croatia: Effect of Severity, Vegetation Type and Time-Since-Fire

Natural landscapes in the Mediterranean ecosystem have experienced extensive changes over the last two centuries due to wildfire activity. Resulting interactions between climatic warming, vegetation species, soil natural, and meteorological condition before and after a wildfire create substantial abrupt landscape alterations. This study investigates the evolution (2 days, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months after a fire) of topsoil (0–5 cm) chemical properties in burned Cambisols (Zadar County, Croatia) with respect to different wildfire severities (HS—high severity, MS—medium severity, C—unburned) and vegetation species (Quercus pubescens Willd. and Juniperus communis L.). Soil pH, electrical conductivity (EC), calcium carbonates (CaCO3), total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), total sulphur (TS), copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) were significantly higher in HS than in MS and C. Total soil potassium (TK), Fe and Ni were significantly higher in C than in HS. The increase of TOC and TN was more pronounced in Quercus p. than Juniperus c., especially in the first three months. Soil pH, EC, CaCO3, TOC, TN, and TS were most affected by wildfire severity. The distinction between C, MS and HS categories was less visible 9 and 12 months post-fire, indicating the start of the recovery of the soil system. Post-fire management and temporal recovery of the soil system should consider the obvious difference in soil disturbance under HS and MS between vegetation species.