2022 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Virtual Conference

March 13 - 15, 2022

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5/25/2021 | 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM | IMPACT OF WILDFIRE ON STREAM CARBON DYNAMICS: LINKING TERRESTRIAL AND AQUATIC CARBON CYCLING IN MONTANE WATERSHEDS USING ISOTOPIC ANALYSIS | Virtual Platform

IMPACT OF WILDFIRE ON STREAM CARBON DYNAMICS: LINKING TERRESTRIAL AND AQUATIC CARBON CYCLING IN MONTANE WATERSHEDS USING ISOTOPIC ANALYSIS

Understanding how fire shifts carbon (C) stocks and processing is critical as climate warms, increasing severe fire frequency. Characterization of hillslope soils, stream C pools, and their respective microbiomes across five montane watersheds with varying fire history illustrates the lasting legacy of fire on watershed C dynamics. Seventeen years post-fire, soil organic matter (SOM) appears to have a shorter residence time, as it is more bioavailable and more likely to be laterally exported to streams as compared to SOM within unburned watersheds. These differences are likely due to shifts in SOM quality, microbial community composition and function, and hydrology. Stable isotope analyses indicate that terrestrial sources dominate the dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) flux in all streams. However, DIC pools in streams unaffected by fire more closely reflect the ?13C of dissolved organic carbon pools as summer progresses, suggesting differences in in-situ sources and/or processing between systems. Shifts in vegetation and microbiome structure post-fire help explain greater terrestrial and aquatic OM degradability in burned watersheds. Results demonstrate that fire can increase lateral C flux to aquatic systems and alter the fate of ecosystem C stocks for decades.

Carbon cycle
Connectivity
Ecosystem Dynamics

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Presenters/Authors

Cheristy Jones (), Colorado College, cheristy.jones@gmail.com;