Efecte de la gestió forestal post incendi en els mamífers a l’incendi del Vilar de Blanes

Abstract

The report below is about the importance of post-fire management of a forest. Specifically, we want to study the impact of the type of post-fire management on mammals. The kind of logging after fire can determine the future development and natural restoration of the forest area, with a concrete impact on the structure of the ecosystem and its niches. It's evaluated in what way three kinds of management, after fire effected in Blanes (summer 2016), can effect on mammals communities: one of the treatments has been well managed (Good Practices), the other has not undergone post-fire management, so dead trees and shrubs (Control) have not been cut, and a last treatment which has been applied aggressive tree cutting (Conventional). Also, following the guide of good practices of the ANIFOG project, it’s evaluated how these mammals take advantage of the woody assemblages and trunks stacked on the ground once the dead wood is cut. The differences between these three treatments are analysed regarding the activity of mammals, based on the analysis of abundance, wealth and patterns of activity. It's interesting to include the third case of conventional treatment where such type of logging has been done in order to look at the differences as well, since this last case is what usually occurs when a forest has burned. If the treatment of good practices (BP) really favours mammals, it's expected to find a favourable effect in the treatments in which good management has been done, therefore a greater activity of the mammals around the piles of branches and dead trunks will be observed. After 5 months of sampling, collecting data using trail-camera study and transects combined methodology results that were not expected were observed. It’s analysed statistically these results, too, with ANOVA. It should be noted that it's possible that the results have been altered by environmental and anthropic factors, such as the presence of machinery and humans during the period of management of the areas or the action of temperature and wind, which has caused that the cameras did not work during the 15 days of sampling, causing a loss of days to record animal activity. This report shows how we can study mammals activity, according to treatment post-fire applied, by not invasive methodology