Review PaperDoes soil burn severity affect the post-fire runoff and interrill erosion response? A review based on meta-analysis of field rainfall simulation data

- There is a significant effect of the fire in runoff and erosion ratios.
- Different burn severity does not evidence significant differences in post-fire runoff.
- Different burn severity classification evidences significant differences in post-fire erosion.
- Uniform burn severity classification worldwide is needed.
- Guidelines for future studies are provided.

SummarySoil burn severity has been widely used to describe the impacts of fire on soils and is increasingly being recognised as a decisive factor controlling post-fire erosion rates. However, there is no unique definition of the term and the relationship between soil burn severity and post-fire hydrological and erosion response has not yet been fully established.The objective of this work was to review the existing literature on the role of soil burn severity on post-fire runoff and erosion ratios. To this end, a meta-analysis was carried out of the runoff and inter-rill erosion data from field rainfall simulation experiments (RSE's) that compared burnt and unburnt conditions. In this study, 109 individual observations were analysed that covered a wide geographical range, various types of land cover (forest, shrubland, and grassland) and two types of fire types (wildfire and prescribed fire). The effect size of the post-fire runoff and erosion response was determined for four key factors: (i) soil burn severity; (ii) time-since-fire; (iii) rainfall intensity; and (iv) bare soil cover.Statistical meta-analysis showed that fire occurrence had a significant effect on the hydrological and erosive response. However, this effect was only significantly higher with increasing soil burn severity for inter-rill erosion, and not for runoff. This study furthermore highlighted the incoherencies between existing burn severity classifications, and proposed an unambiguous classification.