Effect of fire on water repellency, amount and factors of soil erosion in forests of southwest coast of the Caspian Sea

Studying the effect of fire on hydrological properties, soil and surface features is important and essential to develop the methods preventing soil erosion for sustainable management of lands and water resources. In compartments within the study area, 15 burned sites and 15 unburned sites, in five sub-land units, hydrological properties, soil characteristics, water repellency and the amount of erosion were determined. Also, the status of soil erosion was evaluated using BLM method. The results of analysis of variance showed that total erosion, infiltration rate and water repellency had significant differences in burned and unburned sites. Only infiltration rate showed significant differences among sub-land units. The reversibility time for soil porosity and total erosion to conditions before the fire was about four to five years. The time reversibility for actual and potential water repellencies were also two to four and four to six years, respectively. The results also showed that canopy cover percentage, number of trees in hectare, height of tress, and soil porosity were the best variables to estimate the total erosion in study area.