Simulated temperatures of forest fires affect water solubility in soil and litter

Miotliński, Konrad; Tshering, Kuenzang; Boyce, Mary C.; Blake, David; Horwitz, Pierre

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2023.110236

Cited by 4 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…We note that our results showed good agreement with Miotliński et al. (2023), the only other analysis of ash leachates from southwest Australia. For most elements, concentrations were higher in ash leachates than in soil leachates.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…This is consistent with Miotliński et al. (2023) who found higher concentrations in ashes produced from leaf litter and soil sampled from a site which had burned recently (2 months) than from a site that had burned less recently (4.5 years). That the effect appears to be tertiary to location and burn severity here may be explained by the much longer interval since the penultimate fire in the results presented here.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…However, a qualitative assessment of the data (see Figure S4 in Supporting Information S1) shows that in general, Ca concentrations are lower in white leachates than black ash leachates, while Mg concentrations are higher in white ash leachates. The lack of statistical difference between the concentrations of these analytes by combustion completeness is consistent with the literature, where they are generally reported to behave similarly (Balfour & Woods, 2013;Miotliński et al, 2023;Pereira et al, 2012;Úbeda et al, 2009), although Sánchez-García et al ( 2023) reported that Ca concentrations were higher in ash leachates produced from severe burning, and that Mg concentrations did not vary with burn severity. The charge imbalances of the leachates also support the hypothesis that black ashes are less-combusted than white ashes.…”

Section: Ash Leachate Chemistry Changes With Burn Severitysupporting

confidence: 85%

“…While a review of the literature broadly indicates that ash chemistry changes with burn severity, there is considerable heterogeneity of results, suggesting that there is a spatial and perhaps methodological influence on how ash geochemistry changes with burn severity. There is better agreement between studies of the water-extractable component of ash leachates (e.g., Burton et al, 2016;Miotliński et al, 2023;Pereira et al, 2012;Quintana et al, 2007;Sánchez-García et al, 2023;Úbeda et al, 2009), with acid-digested samples tending to be less consistent. In general, our results show strong agreement with Miotliński et al (2023) for leachate data from combustion simulation experiments conducted on soils and vegetation litter from southwestern Western Australia, see Table S5.1 in Text S5 in Supporting Information S1.…”

Section: Ash Leachate Chemistry Changes With Burn Severitymentioning

confidence: 91%

“…In experimental settings, hotter combustion temperatures have been shown to result in Ca/Mg ratios in ash leachates of <1 (Marion et al., 1991; Úbeda et al., 2009). However, in ashes from both experimental studies and wildfires with known burn temperature or severity (Balfour & Woods, 2013; Miotliński et al., 2023; Pereira et al., 2012; Sánchez‐García et al., 2023; Santín et al., 2015; Úbeda et al., 2009), the response of both Ca and Mg to burn severity is variable, and none of the published concentrations support the hypothesis that this ratio indicates burn severity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Combustion Completeness and Sample Location Determine Wildfire Ash Leachate Chemistry

Campbell,

Treble,

McDonough

et al. 2024

Geochem Geophys Geosyst

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Understanding past fire regimes and how they vary with climate, human activity, and vegetation patterns is fundamental to the mitigation and management of changing fire regimes as anthropogenic climate change progresses. Ash‐derived trace elements and pyrogenic biomarkers from speleothems have recently been shown to record past fire activity in speleothems from both Australia and North America. This calls for an empirical study of ash geochemistry to aid the interpretation of speleothem palaeofire proxy records. Here we present analyses of leached ashes collected following fires in southwest and southeast Australia. We include a suite of inorganic elemental data from the water‐soluble fraction of ash as well as a selection of organic analytes (pyrogenic lipid biomarkers). We also present elemental data from leachates of soils collected from sites in southwest Australia. We demonstrate that the water‐soluble fraction of ash differs from the water‐soluble fraction of soils, with trace and minor element concentrations in ash leachates varying with combustion completeness (burn severity) and sample location. Changes in some lipid biomarker concentrations extracted from ashes may reflect burn severity. Our results contribute to building a process‐based understanding of how speleothem geochemistry may record fire frequency and severity, and suggest that more research is needed to understand the transport pathways for the inclusion of pyrogenic biomarkers in speleothems. Our results also demonstrate that potential contaminant loads from ashes are much higher than from soils, with implications for the management of karst catchments, which are a critical water resource.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Ash Leachate Chemistry Changes With Burn Severitysupporting

confidence: 85%

Section: Ash Leachate Chemistry Changes With Burn Severitymentioning

confidence: 91%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Combustion Completeness and Sample Location Determine Wildfire Ash Leachate Chemistry

Campbell,

Treble,

McDonough

et al. 2024

Geochem Geophys Geosyst

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Assessing ecological risks and spatial distribution of potentially toxic elements in soils from anthropized environments in a watershed at the caatinga-Atlantic forest ecotone in Brazil

Cardoso,

Nascimento,

Lins

et al. 2024

Environmental Research

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Experimental Open Air Burning of Vegetation Enhances Organic Matter Chemical Heterogeneity Compared to Laboratory Burns

Myers-Pigg,

Grieger,

Roebuck

et al. 2024

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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Wildfires produce solid residuals that have unique chemical and physical properties compared to unburned materials, which influence their cycling and fate in the natural environment. Visual burn severity assessment is used to evaluate post-fire alterations to the landscape in field-based studies, yet muffle furnace methods are commonly used in laboratory studies to assess molecular scale alterations along a temperature continuum. Here, we examined solid and leachable organic matter characteristics from chars visually characterized as low burn severity that were created either on an open air burn table or from low-temperature muffle furnace burns. We assessed how the different combustion conditions influence solid and dissolved organic matter chemistries and explored the potential influence of these results on the environmental fate and reactivity. Notably, muffle furnace chars produced less leachable carbon and nitrogen than open air chars across land cover types. Organic matter produced from muffle furnace burns was more homogeneous than open air chars. This work highlights chemical heterogeneities that exist within a single burn severity category, potentially influencing our conceptual understanding of pyrogenic organic matter cycling in the natural environment, including transport and processing in watersheds. Therefore, we suggest that open air burn studies are needed to further advance our understanding of pyrogenic organic matter’s environmental reactivity and fate.

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Simulated temperatures of forest fires affect water solubility in soil and litter

Cited by 4 publications

References 66 publications

Combustion Completeness and Sample Location Determine Wildfire Ash Leachate Chemistry

Combustion Completeness and Sample Location Determine Wildfire Ash Leachate Chemistry

Assessing ecological risks and spatial distribution of potentially toxic elements in soils from anthropized environments in a watershed at the caatinga-Atlantic forest ecotone in Brazil

Experimental Open Air Burning of Vegetation Enhances Organic Matter Chemical Heterogeneity Compared to Laboratory Burns

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