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The impact of wildfire on biogeochemical fluxes and water quality in boreal catchments
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2021 (English)In: Biogeosciences, ISSN 1726-4170, E-ISSN 1726-4189, Vol. 18, no 10, p. 3243-3261Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Wildfires are the major disturbance in boreal ecosystems and are of great importance for the biogeochemical cycles of carbon (C) and nutrients. However, these fire-induced impacts are hard to quantify and are rarely assessed together at an ecosystem level incorporating both aquatic and terrestrial environments. Following a wildfire in Sweden in an area with ongoing monitoring, we conducted a pre-fire (9 years) and post-fire (4 years) multi-catchment investigation of element losses (combustion and leaching) and impacts on water quality. Direct C and nitrogen (N) losses through combustion were ca. 4500 and 100 gm(-2), respectively. Net CO2 loss associated with soil and biomass respiration was similar to 150 g C m(-2) during the first year, but the ecosystem started to show net CO2 uptake in June 3 years post-fire. Aquatic C and N losses the first 12 months post-fire were 7 and 0.6 gm(-2), respectively. Hence, soil respiration comprised a non-negligible part of the post-fire C loss, whereas aquatic C losses were minor and did not increase post-fire. However, other elements (e.g. Ca, S) exhibited ecologically relevant increases in fluvial export and concentration with large peaks in the immediate post-fire period. The temporal dynamics of stream concentrations (Ca2+, Mg2+, K+,SO4-2, Cl-, NH4+, total organic N) suggest the presence of faster- and slower-release nutrient pools with half-lives of around 2 weeks and 4 months which we attribute to physicochemically and biologically mediated mobilization processes, respectively. Three years after the fire, it appears that dissolved fluxes of nutrients have largely returned to pre-fire conditions, but there is still net release of CO2.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2021. Vol. 18, no 10, p. 3243-3261
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Oceanography, Hydrology and Water Resources
Research subject
Hydrology
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URN: urn:nbn:se:smhi:diva-6125DOI: 10.5194/bg-18-3243-2021ISI: 000658346600001OAI: oai:DiVA.org:smhi-6125DiVA, id: diva2:1570695
Available from: 2021-06-22 Created: 2021-06-22 Last updated: 2021-06-22Bibliographically approved

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Strömqvist, Johan

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