Heat-Transfer in the Soil During Very Low-Intensity Experimental Fires - the Role of Duff and Soil-Moisture Content
Authors: Valette JC , Gomendy V , Marechal J , Houssard C , Gillon D 
Published: October 2005

The aim of this study was to analyse the effects of duff thickness and moisture content, and of soil moisture content on the transfer of heat in the soil. The experimental design used intact soil blocks with their duff layer, subjected to controlled fires of variable very low intensities of up to 100 kW m-1. The fuel on the surface was composed of needles and twigs of Pinus pinaster. The maximum temperatures measured within the fuel were of the order of 650 degrees C and were independent of the fireline intensities. For fires with fireline intensity of the order of 30 kW m-1, the presence of the duff layer reduced from 330 degrees C the temperature rise at the soil surface. Duff thickness played only a secondary role, but increasing moisture content reinforced its insulating effect, so that the temperature rise was 2.5 times less at 1 cm depth in the duff when the moisture content exceeded 70% dry weight, than when the moisture content was less than 30%. For more intense fires (> 50 kW m-1) that produced longer-lasting surface heating, duff thickness and moisture content played an important role in significantly reducing the temperature rise at the soil surface (range 140 degrees C to 28 degrees C). Because of low soil thermal conductivity, temperature attenuation with increasing depth was noticed. In the case of low intensity fires (< 30 kW m-1) in the absence of a duff layer, the maximum temperatures were reduced from 350 degrees C at the surface to 7 degrees C at 3.5 cm. The temperature rise in the soil decreased with depth according to a negative exponential relation. The rate constant of this relation was greater when the initial surface temperature and the soil moisture content were higher. For the soil studied, and under the moisture conditions encountered (between 7 and 19% of dry weight), the rate constant could be predicted with acceptable precision (r2 = 0.67), if the surface soil temperature rise and the soil moisture content were known. In these experimental fires, which were carried out when the air temperature did not exceed 20 degrees C, lethal temperatures (> 60 degrees C) were measured in the upper few centimetres of the duff layer in very low-intensity fires, and in the upper few centimetres of the soil (where nutrients are most concentrated and biological activity most intense) in the slightly more intense fires. The fire intensities were always very moderate, and of the order of magnitude df those encountered in the prescribed burns conducted on fuel-breaks of the french Mediterranean area. Their impact on the surface of the forest soil, in terms of lethal temperatures transmitted to the horizon rich in organic matter, are not negligible. In contrast, below 3 to 5 cm depth, prescribed burns, conducted under the conditions of the experiments, would not lead to significant change to nutrients or microfaunal or microfloral activity; in particular, root tips would not be subjected to heat stress sufficient to kill them.