However, the effects of fire residues on soil CO₂ emissions and the germination of pioneer species in burned areas have been insufficiently studied.

The gap

Consensus across the literature

Supporting evidence — 3 representative gaps

• Fire frequency differentially affects carbon pools and pyrogenic organic matter in a South African montane grassland (2026) · doi

  This study used samples from 0–5  cm and 5–15  cm from plots that were treated with annual, bien- nial, quinquennial and infrequent spring-burn treat- ments. Future studies could continue and expand this research by including seasonality and deeper soil sample depths. The burning season significantly influences the growth of vegetation (Trollope 2009) and the effect of fire on SOC (Findlay et  al. 2022). Therefore, it would be relevant to also look at the effect of season of burn on carbon distribution in soils. Regarding the depth of sampling, Ward et  al. (2016) reported considerable carbon stocks in British mesic grassland soils at depths of 30 cm to 100 cm, with significant effects of management. This poten- tially suggests an important research gap for the effects of fire regimes on soil C to depths greater than those examined here. Carbon sequestration is cur- rently considered to be a climate mitigation option (Lavallee et al. 2019; Veldman et al. 2015; Viret and Grand 2019). However, the long-term effects of fire on soil carbon storage (and its implication for climate change) remains poorly understood. Fire exclusion policies have potentially harmed stable carbon stor- age (Gao et  al. 2024), therefore further researching the soil carbon storage potential as a result of fire will therefore be an important direction for future studies (Lavallee et al. 2019; Rumpel et al. 2020).

  Keywords: carbon fire soil depths effects burn future season effect soils important climate lavallee storage used
• Burn severity alters peatland moss water availability: implications for post‐fire recovery (2015) · doi

  Abstract Wildfire is the largest disturbance affecting northern peatlands; however, little is known about how burn severity (organic soil depth of burn) alters post‐fire hydrological conditions that control the recovery of keystone peatland mosses (i.

  Keywords: burn abstract wildfire largest disturbance affecting northern peatlands little known severity organic soil depth alters
• Responsess of Digitaria sanguinalis (L.) Scop growth and soil respiration dynamics to ash content in a burned area (2026) · doi

  However, the effects of fire residues on soil CO₂ emissions and the germination of pioneer species in burned areas have been insufficiently studied.

  Keywords: effects fire residues soil emissions germination pioneer species burned areas insufficiently studied