Effects of anthropogenic fires on some soil properties and the implications of fire frequency for the Guinea savanna ecological zone, Ghana

Amoako, Esther Ekua; Gambiza, James

doi:10.1016/j.sciaf.2019.e00201

Cited by 10 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Thus, people burn as they see drier grass cover during the dry season [ 68 ]. Districts with low fire frequency on the other hand, are characterised by sparse vegetation and more buildings than high fire frequency sites [ 65 ]. It is also noted that most of the respondents are indigenes of the various districts, hence corresponding to their occupation and other socio-cultural activities which are land-based, with a few who have migrated from other districts mainly for farming.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Data on daily fire counts (detected by sensors on Earth observation satellite) from 2013 to 2017 on Ghana, were received from EORIC (Earth Observation Research and Innovation Centre Ghana- (Earth Observation Research and Innovation Centre— https://eoric.uenr.edu.gh/?bunch_projects=fire-information-for-rural-farmers ) in collaboration with the Advanced Fire Information the CSIR, Meraka Institute South Africa ( http://www.csir.co.za ). The first batch of fire data for the 2015 to 2017 was sent from EORIC, and data for 2013 and 2014 from the CSIR [ 65 ]. The fire count data for 2013 to 2017, was used to generate a fire map for the region ( Fig 1A ) which is compared to the land use/land cover map of the region ( Fig 1B ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fire use practices, knowledge and perceptions in a West African savanna parkland

Amoako

Gambiza

2022

PLoS ONE

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Understanding people’s practices, knowledge and perceptions of the use of fire and fire regimes can inform fire management plans that could contribute to savanna conservation and sustainable management. We investigated the frequency of fire use, control and perceptions of fire regimes for selected livelihood and socio-cultural activities in six districts in the Guinea savanna of Ghana. The six districts were selected to have a good representation of fire prone areas in the region based on fire frequency data obtained from the CSIR Meraka Institute, South Africa. A multiple regression analysis showed that people’s use of fire for the selected socio-cultural activities from district, occupation, gender, age and ethnic group significantly predicted fire use for the activities R2 = 0.043, F (5,498) = 5.43, p < 0.000. Age and occupation added significantly to the use of fire. The study revealed that the majority of respondents (83%) across the study districts used fire once a year for at least one of the following activities: land preparation, weed/pest control, burning postharvest stubble, bush clearing around homesteads, firebreaks, charcoal burning and hunting. The study also showed a higher frequency of fire use for land preparation for cropping than for the other activities. Less than a fifth of the respondents (17%) indicated that they do not use fire for any of the selected activities. The majority of respondents (65%) mentioned that they controlled their use of fire to prevent destruction to property or injuring humans. The study revealed a higher frequency of fire use in the dry season for land preparation for cropping. However, respondents rated season of burning as the most important attribute, with little attention to the other attributes of a fire regime, contrary to what is theoretically recognized. Understanding traditional fire use practices in terms of how to regulate the mix of frequency, intensity/severity, season, size and type of fire for these and other socio-cultural purposes could help to mitigate and/or manage bushfires in West African savannas and enhance savanna conservation and management. Hence, the need to better understand people’s knowledge and perceptions of fire regimes in fire assisted socio-cultural practices in West Africa.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fire use practices, knowledge and perceptions in a West African savanna parkland

Amoako

Gambiza

2022

PLoS ONE

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“…Nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus can be leached by rainfall and lost from the burned ecosystem decreasing to pre-fire levels (Kutiel and Naveh 1987). Fires have been found to significantly increase soil pH (Kutiel and Naveh 1987, Norouzi and Ramezanpour 2013, Amoako and Gambiza 2019), specifically, high intensity fires significantly increase soil pH (Bridges et al 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In agreement, reducing soil pH increases nickel accumulation (Nkrumah et al 2019). Results have further suggested that burning enhances the availability of some soil nutrients on topsoil for a short period being an unsustainable way of increasing soil productivity (Amoako and Gambiza 2019). Besides fire, agricultural lime can be used to increase soil pH and soil nutrient availability (Ritchey et al 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seed Germination, Post-fire Plant Growth and Conservation of the Rare Endemic and Endangered Chamaecrista glandulosa var. mirabilis (Fabaceae)

Colon

Terrada

2022

Preprint

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Conservation has been challenged by biodiversity loss drivers. Also, fire disturbance can temporarily change ecosystems. Fire effects in soil nutrients and pH, plant abundance, reproduction, seed weight, seed germination, and plant growth were assessed. Four seed starting systems were used for germination and growth under laboratory conditions. We found significant differences in the means of iron, manganese, nickel, soil pH, and plant height, and a significant positive linear relationship between seed weight and plant height. Results indicate that fires increase soil pH and cause changes in micronutrients that can increase plant growth. Large size plants are produced from high weight seeds. Finally, ex situ conservation and species reintroduction were feasible conservation strategies that should be integrated with in situ conservation.

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“…Fire is an influential environmental factor affecting all soil properties [43,44]. In some cases, fire can increase nutrients [45], electrical conductivity, total phosphorus, and mobile potassium. All this finally results in a reduction in total nitrogen and organic matter [46].…”

Section: Chemical Propertiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human-Altered Soils at an Archeological Site of the Bronze Age: The Tyater-Araslanovo-II Settlement, Southern Cis-Ural Region, Russia

et al. 2021

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This paper presents the results of studying the soils at the archeological site of the Tyater-Araslanovo-II settlement located in the Republic of Bashkortostan, eastern European Russia. The settlement functioned in the 15th–12th centuries BCE (the Late Bronze Age). We compared the soil properties at four sites in the study area: archeological (1), buried (2), affected by long pyrogenic exposure (3), and background site (4). In soil samples, the total carbon content, the fractional composition of humus and organic matter characteristics, alkaline hydrolyzable nitrogen, total phosphorus, mobile phosphorus, potassium, absorbed calcium and magnesium, pH, particle size distribution, basal soil respiration, and optical density were estimated. The study results showed the anthropogenic impact on the archeological site’s soils. The newly formed AU horizon at the archeological site (1), affected by the cattle summer camp, was richer in soil nutrients and agrochemical properties, namely, the content of exchangeable and gross forms of phosphorus, alkaline hydrolyzable nitrogen, and exchange cations of the soil absorbing complex compared to the reference soil (4). For the pyrogenic layer (AU[hh]pyr) from the ancient furnace (fireplace) (3), the mobile and total forms of phosphorus were several times higher than those in the reference soil (4) but inferior regarding other agrochemical parameters. Thus, the activities of ancient people (especially cattle breeding) greatly influenced the properties of the soil.

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Effects of anthropogenic fires on some soil properties and the implications of fire frequency for the Guinea savanna ecological zone, Ghana

Cited by 10 publications

References 47 publications

Fire use practices, knowledge and perceptions in a West African savanna parkland

Fire use practices, knowledge and perceptions in a West African savanna parkland

Seed Germination, Post-fire Plant Growth and Conservation of the Rare Endemic and Endangered Chamaecrista glandulosa var. mirabilis (Fabaceae)

Human-Altered Soils at an Archeological Site of the Bronze Age: The Tyater-Araslanovo-II Settlement, Southern Cis-Ural Region, Russia

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