Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agufm.h41e0929b&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #H41E-0929
Physics
0461 Metals, 0486 Soils/Pedology (1865), 0496 Water Quality, 1865 Soils (0486), 1871 Surface Water Quality
Scientific paper
Wildfires are well known sources of mercury (Hg) to the atmosphere, but there is a paucity of data characterizing how fire impacts the transport of Hg to surface waters where methylation can occur. Because post-fire storm events have the potential to carry large sediment loads to a stream system, it is important to understand the effects of wildfire on Hg binding and relative variability in terrestrial soils in order to assess its transport potential in burned watersheds. It has been widely reported that Hg stored in surface soils is lost to the atmosphere due to volatilization during wildfire and that higher metal concentrations are associated with fine-grained particle fractions due to higher surface area/volume ratios, and consequently, available binding sites. Following southern California's September 2006 Day Fire, seasonal terrestrial sampling was undertaken at burned and unburned soils over a 1.5 year period to assess both immediate and long term impacts of the fire on Hg binding in the soils of Piru Creek watershed. Freshly burned soils exhibited the loss of Hg at the surface that would be expected due to volatilization during the fire, but this was followed by a sharp increase in [Hg] in surface soils over the subsequent recovery period that was not seen in the unburned soils. Soils were also size-fractionated and Hg was measured on each grain size. Mercury in the fine grained soil fraction (<250 um) was not significantly higher than that measured in the coarser grain size fractions. This is contrary to the behavior observed in the unburned soils and has implications for modeling Hg transport to surface waters as a function of hill slope erosional processes and sediment re- distribution in burned watersheds.
Burke M. P.
Ferreira Marta
Hogue T. S.
Jay J. A.
Mendez C. B.
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