Project title: Resilience: research on growth of vegetation after a forest fire

College Hagelstein   Sint-Katelijne-Waver   Belgium

What is the impact of ashes of burnt organic material on germination and growth of plants?

Over the past century, the concentration of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane has increased significantly, mainly due to human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation and intensive agriculture. Therefore, forest fires are more common, and the intensity of the fires are getting bigger. There are not only fires in countries with a warm climate but in Belgium we can also notice that forest fires occur more often. This leads to a big loss of biodiversity due to the burned landscapes. Therefore, it is important to grow new vegetation. This led to our project where we wanted to research if the ashes of a forest fire can help to grow the plants back faster. We focused on how the ashes of a forest fire affect the vegetation growth. We limited our vegetation to these two plants: the spider plants (Chlorophytum comosum) and the ball thistle (Echinops ritro). We used 14 pots for our experiment, of which we planted in six of them the spider plants and in eight we planted seeds of the ball thistle. In the half of the pots, so three of the spider plants and four of the ball thistle seeds, we additionally added ashes on the ground. These ashes were formed by burning leaves and ground we collected in the nearest forest where we live in Belgium. For twelve weeks long we followed up the grow and changes of the plants and seeds. For the plants, we picked one leave of each plant and measured it weekly to follow up de growth of the plants. We also took pictures and measured the length of the outcoming seeds.

What is the impact of ashes of burnt organic material on germination and growth of plants?

First, it’s beneficial to let the forest regenerate itself after a forest fire. The ash is beneficial for new vegetation. This is an action for a place where a forest fire has taken place, but the ash can also be used for other purposes. Secondly ashes can make infertile land fertile to stimulate the growth of new plants. For example, these ashes can come from human activities, such as the energy industry that burn wood or simple out of a fire pit at home. These products are waste products. In this case using ashes is better than using fertilisers because you don’t have to create a new process and it’s more natural. Thirdly, climate change can amplify erosion, decomposition of organic matter and landslides. In these circumstances, the ash could help improve the quality of the soil to avoid these events. Ash provides essential nutrients. Finally, ash could be used on a smaller scale. For instance, to enrich and balance compost or to improve your gardening and to create a natural pest control agent. Ash combats insect pests by inhibiting the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, leading to overstimulation of their nervous system and ultimately causing death of insects.

Projects are created by the teams and they take the full responsibility of the shared data.
← All projects