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Title: | Fuel Management and Experimental Wildfire Effects on Forest Structure, Tree Mortality and Soil Chemistry in Tropical Dry Forests in Ghana |
Authors: | Barnes, Victor R Swaine, Mike D Pinard, Michelle A Kyereh, Boateng |
Keywords: | fuel mortality management soil wildfire |
Issue Date: | 2017 |
Publisher: | Journal of Forest and Environmental Science |
Abstract: | The effects of application of fuel-reduction treatment in wildfire management has not been tested in dry forests of
Ghana. Therefore, the short-term ecological effects of prescribed burning and hand thinning treatments followed by
experimental wildfire were investigated in degraded forests and Tectona grandis forest plantations in two forest reserves
of different levels of dryness in Ghana. The results showed that more trees were killed in prescribed burning (average
of 41% in degraded forest and 18% in plantations) than hand thinning (7.2% in degraded forests and 8% in plantation).
More tree seedlings were also killed in prescribed burning (72%) than hand thinning (47%). The mortality of trees
and seedlings were greater in Worobong South forest, a less dry forest reserve than the Afram Headwaters forest,
a drier forest reserve. Fuel treatment especially prescribed burning compared to the control reduced wildfire effects
on forest canopy particularly in the less dry forest and tree mortality especially in the drier forest. Prescribed burning
temporarily increased pH, exchangeable potassium (52%) and available phosphorus (82%) in the surface soils of the
entire plots. The two fuel treatment methods did not have much influence on basal area, organic matter and total
nitrogen. Nevertheless, they were able to reduce the adverse wildfire effects on soil pH, exchangeable potassium, available
phosphorus, organic matter and total nitrogen concentrations. Fuel treatments therefore have potential application in
dry forest management in Ghana due to their ability to retain important forest ecological traits after a wildfire incidence. |
Description: | This article is published in Journal of Forest and Environmental Science and also available at https://doi.org/10.7747/JFES.2017.33.3.172 |
URI: | 10.7747/JFES.2017.33.3.172 http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/13498 |
Appears in Collections: | College of Agric and Natural Resources
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