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Feeling the burn: current research and emerging issues in fire, water quality, and aquatic ecosystems
Citation:
De Palma-Dow, A., R. Hill, S. Leduc, I. McCullough, AND M. Paul. Feeling the burn: current research and emerging issues in fire, water quality, and aquatic ecosystems. Society of Freshwater Science Annual Meeting, Madison, Wisconsin, June 07 - 12, 2020.
Impact/Purpose:
The purpose of this presentation is to provide a special session to update the scientific community on the wildfire assessment and other related research about the effects of wildfire on water quality.
Description:
Although wildfire is a natural disturbance in many ecosystems, wildfire extent and frequency are increasing across much of North America, particularly in the western United States. There is an urgent need for researchers, managers and the general public to understand and anticipate the full range of effects of increasing fire activity on water quality and ecosystem properties across different aquatic ecosystem types (lakes, reservoirs, streams and rivers). Previous work has demonstrated that fires affect riparian vegetation and shading, water temperatures, geomorphometry, sedimentation and nutrient loading. These changes cascade into impacts on aquatic communities, including algae, invertebrates and fishes. Additionally, there are other less well-studied but potential emerging issues, including differences across aquatic ecosystem types, the mobilization of heavy metals or organic pollutants from natural or anthropogenic sources, chemical residuals from fire retardants and a possible linkage between fire, nutrients and harmful algal blooms. This special session brings together researchers and managers to 1) showcase leading-edge research on the physical, chemical and biological effects of fire on diverse aquatic ecosystems, 2) synthesize known effects, while identifying emerging issues and critical information gaps for future research; and 3) facilitate discussion among researchers and managers coordinating water quality monitoring, managing post-fire impacts and/or implementing mitigation measures