Field trip guidebook : 3rd international meeting of fire effects on soil properties

Abstract

The present document is intended to be an auxiliary working instrument for the field trip to the northwest mountains of Portugal, organized during the 3rd International Meeting of Fire Effects on Soil Properties by the Núcleo Investigação em Geografia e Planeamento da Universidade do Minho, with the collaboration of the Centro de Estudos de Geografia e Ordenamento do Território, scheduled for March 15-19, 2011, in the city of Guimarães (Portugal). The trip is programmed for 17 March 2011 and the proposed itinerary takes us on a tour of the beautiful and characteristic landscape of the Portuguese northwest. This occasion will allow us to discuss a series of issues associated with the theme of the conference: Fire Effects on Soil Properties. Accordingly, we will begin the journey by examining the question of the influence of forest fires on the evolution of the Portuguese northwest landscape. Our attention will centre on the plant life dynamics throughout the last half century. More precisely, we will focus on how man has constructed and “deconstructed” the landscape, namely through its appropriation for economic activities and through man’s influence on the occurrence of forest fires, either negligently or premeditated. This discussion is crucial in order to understand the evolution of the northwest landscape since the 1970s. The second stop will bring us to the heart of the Peneda-Gerês National Park. This area was severely fustigated by forest fires in the summer of 2010. Here we will discuss the effects of the fires on the soil properties, as well as the cost-benefit of prescribed fires in the management of forest spaces and as an instrument of fire prevention and reduction. Subsequently, we proceed to the mountain region of the Serra da Cabreira. This is the ideal place to understand the social factors and the assortment of inherent conflicts of interest involved in the forest fires of rural areas of the Portuguese interior. The field trip will be led by a group of specialists on the themes of the conference, namely: António Bento Gonçalves (Universidade do Minho), António Vieira (Universidade do Minho), Flora Ferreira Leite (Universidade do Minho), Luciano Lourenço (Universidade de Coimbra), Hermínio Botelho (Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro), Artemio Cerdà (Universidade de Valencia), and Xavier Úbeda (Universidade de Barcelona).