**5.2 Results and discussion**

Fire affect soil water repellency in a different way according to soil type and soil depth (Table 4). Fire decreased significantly the presence of water repellency on the surface of all experimental soils: Phaeozems, Calcisols and Cambisols. The fire reduced water repellency even in depth in Phaeozems (to 5 cm depth) and Calcisols (to 2 cm depth). Unlike, fire increased water repellency in Cambisols at 5 cm depth, from hydrophilic (unburned soil samples) to strongly hydrophobic (burned soil samples).


Table 4. Effect of fire on water repellency (WDPT, s) of Phaeozems, Calcisols and Cambisols at different soil depths (mean values and standard deviation; n=9).

Fig. 9. Fire effect on water repellency (WDPT classes) in the studied soils.

Waxes and similar lipid materials could be mostly responsible for the original soil water repellency, which can be enhanced or reduced according to soil properties (Fig. 9). The increase in water-repellent conditions at 5 cm depth in Cambisol could be attributed to the translocation into the soil depth of lipid fractions released from burning organic matter or biomass (González et al., 2004).
