Monitoring of soil Greenhouse Gases emissions from a controlled burnt area combined with guided herbivory

Paper ID: 
cest2021_00782
Topic: 
Climate change mitigation and adaptation
Published under CEST2021
Proceedings ISBN: 978-618-86292-1-9
Proceedings ISSN: 2944-9820
Authors: 
(Corresponding) Mosquera-Losada M., Santiago-Freijanes J., Ferreiro-Domínguez N., Álvarez-López V.
Abstract: 
Rural depopulation as well as the intensification of farming systems in southern Europe have led to important changes in landscape and the ecosystem services they provide. Indoors livestock production is translated into a reduction or absence of grazing which ends up with a rapid expansion of bushes and extensive processes of natural forestation. This causes loss of biodiversity and accumulation of biomass fuel increasing the risk of big fires and therefore negatively affecting these lands. Within the Open2Preserve project, different regional pilot experiences (France, Spain, and Portugal) were established. These pilots aimed at combining an initial prescribed burning to enhance forage quality followed by a grazing to both reduce fire risk and increasing the economic return of farmers, while reducing mechanical costly clearances to be developed there. We aim at evaluating the effect of horse grazed and un-grazed areas on greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions in a mountain area of the Galicia region (NW Spain) after prescribed burning implementation A monitoring of GHG (CH4, N2O and CO2) soil emissions during 16 weeks along the year 2020 was carried out.
Keywords: 
Understory, fire control, grazing, shrubland.