About This Project

As catastrophic megafires and flooding intensify across the western United States, fungi and other microbes are emerging as key allies in restoring ecological balance. Utilizing on-site organic matter, this study seeks to transform wildfire fuels into a resource for long-term soil and ecological resilience. The study measures soil microbial diversity, moisture retention, organic carbon, calcium and fuel reduction effectiveness amongst biome logs and other fuel treatments.

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What is the context of this research?

As wildfire frequency and severity intensify, understanding how wildfire and post-fire management influence soil conditions is increasingly important for guiding restoration and resilience efforts. Fuel treatments typically do not account for their adverse impacts on soil and the complex fungal and microbial communities that are critical to ecological health and climate adaptation. Ongoing debates regarding best practices for land management have illuminated a gap in our understanding of the ecological implications and effectiveness of different fuel treatments. This work integrates microbiology, forestry, and disaster mitigation through a transdisciplinary and collaborative approach to discover whether the biome logs methodology will increase soil moisture, enhance beneficial microbes, accelerate decomposition, and reduce wildfire risk more effectively than conventional fuel treatments such as pile burning and lop and scatter.

What is the significance of this project?

This study evaluates whether the biome logs methodology can increase soil moisture, reduce erosion, accelerate decomposition, and enhance beneficial microbes. Experimental comparisons among biome logs, pile burns, lop and scatter, and untreated controls are being conducted. The biome logs methodology aims to enhance carbon sequestration by increasing the transfer of carbon made available by saprotrophic fungi to mycorrhizal fungi. Supplemental inoculation with locally sourced biocompost is also expected to support fungal establishment and abundance. These microbial and soil processes are associated with greater resistance to combustion, increased carbon storage, improved soil stability, and enhanced post-fire recovery. To better understand how each fuel treatment influences soil microbial communities, environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis of soil samples from each treatment is required.

What are the goals of the project?

This research aims to contribute a scalable, ecologically-based methodology to the growing toolbox for wildfire-adapted land management in both burned and unburned landscapes, and investigate the ecological benefits and drawbacks of common fuel treatments. By developing an iterative framework for the integration of on-site biomass into soil, the biome logs project is developing strategies for mitigating fire and flood impacts while facilitating ecological regeneration and interspecies mutualism in the Santa Cruz Mountains and beyond. The scientific methods are expansive, and include consultations with members of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band; aiming to address wounds that stem from colonization and the separation between humans, forests and microbial communities. With 18 plots sampled both at installation and one year post-treatment, this study will evaluate microbial community composition across a total of 36 soil samples at two study sites.