Effects of low wildfire burn severity due to pre-fire shrub thinning on the chaparral soil bacteriome in the Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California.

ABSTRACT: Our objective was to study the longitudinal effect of decreased burn severity due to vegetation-type conversion (VTC) induced by chaparral shrub thinning prior to the Woolsey wildfire (November 2018) on soil chemistry and bacteriome composition and function. We compared soils from two study sites on the Malibu campus of Pepperdine University in the Santa Monica Mountains: one site had dense, unaltered chaparral shrubland and experienced a 4.5-fold increase in vegetation burn severity (high severity burn) compared to an adjacent altered site where the vegetative fuel load was 80% less prior to the fire (low severity burn). We analyzed soil nutrient concentrations and pH in 2019 and 2021 and soil respiration, measured by CO₂ efflux, in 2019, 2020, and 2021. DNA was isolated from s

SUBMITTER: Macias M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12323652 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature