What question did this study set out to answer?

Assess long-term soil carbon dynamics following fire across different severities and depths.

January 22, 2026Soil Systems0 citationsOpen Access

Long-Term Assessment of Soil Carbon Dynamics in Post-Fire Conditions: Evidence from Digital Soil Mapping Approaches

YBYacine Benhalima ESErika S. Santos DADiego Arán

Puntos clave

Assess long-term soil carbon dynamics following fire across different severities and depths.
Used digital soil mapping to evaluate soil carbon stock changes.
Employed linear and non-linear models including RF and XGBoost for predictions.
Applied feature selection methods to enhance model accuracy.
Analyzed distributional biases with Kolmogorov–Smirnov statistics and corrected them using Quantile Mapping.
Total carbon was 49% higher at the 0–5 cm depth.
Carbon stock at the 0–25 cm depth was 7.57 times greater than at 0–5 cm.
Bulk density decreased post-fire, especially under medium severity conditions.
Both models tended to underestimate variability in the predictions, particularly for carbon stock.

Resumen

This study examined long-term changes in soil carbon stock dynamics 11 and 19 years after fire under different severities at 0–5 and 0–25 cm depths with a digital soil mapping approach. Linear (MLR) and non-linear models (RF, SVR, XGBoost) combined with feature selection methods (r < 0.8, FFS, Boruta) were used to predict bulk density (BD), total C, and C stock. Distributional biases were evaluated with Kolmogorov–Smirnov statistics and corrected by Quantile Mapping (QM). RF-FFS performed best for BD and total C at 0–5, while RF-SVR outperformed for C stock and all properties at 0–25. Total C was 49% higher at 0–5, whereas C stock was 7.57 times greater at 0–25. Both models underestimated variability, especially for C stock. At 0–25, bulk density decreased after fire, particularly under conditions of medium severity, while total C increased following the same tendency. The results showed that fire’s legacy is still present in the ecosystem after one and two decades. This is particularly evident at greater depths, where long-term C stock is lower.

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