Forests provide a number of ecological and hydrological services, for instance, contributing to decreased water and sediment yields through increased infiltration and reduced soil erosion. However, forest fires can turn positive forest services into drawbacks, enhancing surface runoff and soil erosion and damaging both hillslopes and downstream aquatic life in rivers. Therefore, appropriate mitigation strategies should be developed to limit these negative effects. Using a runoff and erosion model (the WaterSed model), we proposed forest fire and firebreak scenarios to analyse their respective effects on sediment loads. The model reproduced the measured discharge and sediment loads over an entire hydrological year, including 21 flood events occurring from November 2010 to May 2011 in a 72-km² Mediterranean catchment (Celone catchment, Puglia, Italy). Eight different forest fire scenarios were then proposed. While the mean burnt areas remained below 2% of the total catchment area, forest fires significantly affected the sediment yield. Indeed, the sediment yield increased over the different forest fire scenarios, from 1.97 to 2.70 t ha⁻¹.yr⁻¹, corresponding to a 37% increase. At the flood-event scale, the sediment load after fire represented up to 324% of the unburnt catchment sediment load in the worst-case scenario. By using realistic firebreaks, the sediment load could be dramatically reduced, from 324% to 165%, in the worst-case scenario. Because rural catchments, such as the Celone catchment, are currently experiencing land abandonment, forested areas are expected to replace crops and expand in the future. This change will likely increase forest ecological services, which may, however, be punctually balanced by negative fire effects. More studies addressing the global impacts of forest growth, fires and firebreaks on sediment transfers are therefore needed in similar environments.

森林提供了许多生态和水文服务，例如，通过增加渗透和减少土壤侵蚀，导致水和沉积物产量下降。但是，森林大火会把积极的森林服务变成弊端，增加地表径流和土壤侵蚀，并破坏山坡和河流下游的水生生物。因此，应制定适当的缓解策略以限制这些负面影响。使用径流和侵蚀模型（WaterSed模型），我们提出了森林火灾和火灾情景，以分析它们各自对沉积物负荷的影响。该模型再现了整个水文年的测得的排沙量，包括从2010年11月至2011年5月在72 km ^2中发生的21次洪水事件。地中海集水区（Celone集水区，意大利普利亚）。然后提出了八种不同的森林火灾场景。虽然平均燃烧面积保持在总集水面积的2％以下，但森林大火严重影响了沉积物的产量。实际上，在不同的森林大火情景下，沉积物的产量从1.97吨增加到2.70吨公顷^-1 .yr ^-1，相当于增加了37％。在洪灾事件规模上，在最坏的情况下，火灾后的泥沙负荷占未燃烧集水区泥沙负荷的324％。通过使用实际的防火措施，在最坏的情况下，沉积物负荷可以从324％大大降低到165％。由于乡村集水区（例如赛隆集水区）目前正面临土地被遗弃的问题，因此森林面积有望替代农作物并在未来扩大。这种变化可能会增加森林生态服务，但是，可能会在负面的火势影响下及时达到平衡。因此，在类似的环境中，需要开展更多研究以解决森林生长，大火和防火带对沉积物迁移的全球影响。