Traditional fire use impact in the aboveground carbon stock of the chestnut forests of Central Spain and its implications for prescribed burning.

Chestnut forest ecosystems have a complex fire ecology; a result of centuries of co-evolution with pre-industrial era, cultural fire use by local communities based on Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). As the "forest transition" unfolds throughout Europe however, and the traditional role of chestnut forest ecosystems as producers of edible nuts and firewood declines, chestnut forest resilience may be endangered due to disturbance regime changes driven by transformations in land use linked to the rural exodus, state fire exclusion policies and climate change. In this study we compared the aboveground carbon stocks of two chestnut forests located in Central Spain which can be considered representative of divergent Europe-wide management trends.