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)