4.1 Carbon erosion map
Soil erosion is a natural risk that is exacerbated by anthropogenic and/or natural activities, such as wildfires in the case of Galite. However, there is limited information on the spatial distribution of this phenomenon at the territorial scale.
Christensen (1977) measured that less than 1% of the total nitrogen found in the ashes was in mineral form, with 99% being in organic form. This immediate production of ammoniacal nitrogen at the soil level does not seem to be related to the ash input but rather to the heating of the surface layers of the soil and the hydrolysis of proteins.
This study is based on the use of the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) model and calculations of carbon stocks by multiplying the C quantity with bulk density and estimated depth influenced by erosion. According to the results, the green areas on the map represent the soils most affected by wildfires, characterized by a high erosion risk (> 75%), while the rest face a risk of soil loss ranging from moderate to the tolerable limit of 11 t/ha/year in the context of mountainous landscapes This risk is accentuated by the loss of vegetation cover due to fire and slope.( Figure 8)