Wildfire denudes vegetation and impacts chemical and physical soil properties, which can alter hillslope erosion rates. Post‐wildfire erosion can also contribute disproportionately to long‐term erosion rates and landscape evolution. Post‐fire hillslope erosion rates remain difficult to predict and document at the hillslope scale. Here we use 210Pbaex (lead‐210 mineral‐adsorbed excess) inventories to describe net sediment erosion on steep, convex hillslopes in three basins (unburned, moderately and severely burned) in mountainous central Idaho. We analyzed nearly 300 soil samples for 210Pbaex content with alpha spectrometry and related net sediment erosion to burn severity, aspect, gradient, curvature and distance from ridgetop. We also tested our data against models for advective, linear and non‐linear diffusive erosion. Statistically lower net soil losses on north‐ versus south‐facing unburned hillslopes suggest that greater vegetative cover and soil cohesion on north‐facing slopes decrease erosion. On burned hillslopes, erosion differences between aspects were less apparent and net erosion was more variable, indicating that vegetation influences erosion magnitude and fire drives erosion variability. We estimated net soil losses throughout the length of unburned hillslopes, including through a footslope transition to concave form. In contrast, on burned hillslopes, the subtle shift from convex to concave form was associated with deposition of a post‐fire erosion pulse. Such overall patterns of erosion and deposition are consistent with predictions from a non‐linear diffusion equation. This finding also suggests that concave sections of overall convex hillslopes affect post‐disturbance soil erosion and deposition. Despite these patterns, no strong relationships were evident between local net soil losses and gradient, curvature, distance from ridgetop, or erosion predicted with advection or diffusion equations. The observed relationship between gradient and erosion is therefore likely more complex or stochastic than often described theoretically, especially over relatively short timescales (60–100 years). Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Fallout radionuclides, including lead‐210 excess (210Pbex), have been broadly and successfully used to quantify net hillslope sediment transport in agricultural, pastoral and forested landscapes but have only recently been applied in burned terrain. Quantifying post‐fire erosion is important because fires can amplify hillslope erosion, impacting terrestrial and aquatic habitat and water quality. However, we lack a basic understanding of the fate of 210Pbex in fires. To address this knowledge gap, we collected over 400 soil samples from unburned, moderately and severely burned forested sites in central Idaho. We measured soil 210Pbex content at stable reference and eroding sites and in mineral and organic soil components. At all sites, organic matter had the highest concentration of 210Pbex, representing 30% to 73% of the total activity. At the severely and moderately burned sites, 210Pbex reference inventories were lower by 58% and 41%, with about 40% less organic mass, relative to the unburned site. These results indicate that most 210Pbex in our semi‐arid, forested sites was bound to organic matter, and that a substantial portion of this lead was lost due to forest fires. These losses likely occurred through volatilization and wind transport of smoke and ash. In the moderately burned site, 210Pbex losses were more spatially variable, potentially due to spatially uneven fire intensity and effects. Despite equal percent losses of 210Pbex, lower inventories at the burned sites produced lower calculated net erosion rates relative to the unburned site. Thus, given methodological uncertainties, 210Pbex losses due to fire, and the subsequent sensitivity of calculated net erosion rates to these lower 210Pbex inventories, we suggest this method should not be used in burned terrain to calculate absolute net erosion and deposition rates. However, within a given burned site, 210Pbex inventories still provide useful information describing relative soil losses and storage across the landscape. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.