Temporal and Spatial Variation of Episodic Wind Erosion in Unburned and Burned Semiarid Shrubland

Whicker, Jeffrey J.; Breshears, David D.; Wasiolek, Piotr; Kirchner, Thomas B.; Tavani, Rebecca A.; Schoep, D.; Rodgers, J.

doi:10.2134/jeq2002.0599

Cited by 75 publications

(86 citation statements)

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“…This pulse of aeolian transport following the Twin Buttes fire was comparable to post-fire aeolian transport reported in Africa, Australia, and elsewhere in the USA (Wasson and Nanninga, 1986;Zobeck et al, 1989;Wiggs et al, 1994;Whicker et al, 2002;Vermeire et al, 2005), except that background aeolian transport was relatively lower in undisturbed ESRP and the post-fire pulse of aeolian transport was relatively intense and only occurred over a few months.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

“…Whicker et al, 2002;Sankey et al, 2009aSankey et al, , 2010 as well as changes in the physical and chemical properties of the soil surface (Ravi et al, 2009). Despite the recognized interactions among fire and aeolian transport on the redistribution of soil nutrients (see Ravi et al, 2009), our results are among the first to directly quantify post-fire, horizontal nutrient fluxes (i.e., via sediment captured from air) in a sagebrush steppe ecosystem.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…Previous studies have examined the effect of fire on aeolian transport (Zobeck et al, 1989;Wiggs et al, 1994;Whicker et al, 2002;Vermeire et al, 2005;Ravi et al, 2006Ravi et al, , 2007bSankey et al, 2009aSankey et al, , b, 2010), yet the majority of these studies have focused on factors that contribute to increase rates of aeolian transport, such as changes in vegetation cover and surface roughness (Zobeck et al, 1989;Wiggs et al, 1994; and unburned (open triangles) area (* denotes significant site differences at P < 0.05). Whicker et al, 2002;Sankey et al, 2009aSankey et al, , 2010 as well as changes in the physical and chemical properties of the soil surface (Ravi et al, 2009).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Aeolian nutrient fluxes following wildfire in sagebrush steppe: implications for soil carbon storage

et al. 2011

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Abstract. Pulses of aeolian transport following fire can profoundly affect the biogeochemical cycling of nutrients in semi-arid and arid ecosystems. Our objective was to determine horizontal nutrient fluxes occurring in the saltation zone during an episodic pulse of aeolian transport that occurred following a wildfire in a semi-arid sagebrush steppe ecosystem in southern Idaho, USA. We also examined how temporal trends in nutrient fluxes were affected by changes in particle sizes of eroded mass as well as nutrient concentrations associated with different particle size classes. In the burned area, total carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) fluxes were as high as 235 g C m −1 d −1 and 19 g N m −1 d −1 during the first few months following fire, whereas C and N fluxes were negligible in an adjacent unburned area throughout the study. Temporal variation in C and N fluxes following fire was largely attributable to the redistribution of saltation-sized particles. Total N and organic C concentrations in the soil surface were significantly lower in the burned relative to the unburned area one year after fire. Our results show how an episodic pulse of aeolian transport following fire can affect the spatial distribution of soil C and N, which, in turn, can have important implications for soil C storage. These findings demonstrate how an ecological disturbance can exacerbate a geomorphic process and highlight the need for further research to better understand the role aeolian transport plays in the biogeochemical cycling of C and N in recently burned landscapes.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Aeolian nutrient fluxes following wildfire in sagebrush steppe: implications for soil carbon storage

et al. 2011

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“…To estimate the mass of material leaving from or depositing in the study sites, we measured the vertical mass flux. Vertical transport or vertical flux was measured using the vertical flux gradient method as outlined in Stull (1988) and applied as described in Whicker et al (2002a). This method requires measurements of the vertical concentration gradient of aerosol mass (dχ/dz), which is then multiplied by the eddy diffusivity coefficient (K z ).…”

Section: Measuring Vertical and Horizontal Wind-driven Transport Amonmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Water-driven transport occurs as a sporadic, event-based phenomenon associated with occasional, intense rains (Dingman, 1994). Large-scale, wind-driven detachment and transport also occurs in response to weather events, especially periods of high winds (Godon and Todhunter, 1998;Stout, 2001;Arimoto et al, 2002;Whicker et al, 2002a). However, some wind-driven events that result in both detachment and transport can be due to short bursts of wind on generally calm days (Stout and Zobeck, 1997) and may be expected to occur much more frequently than intense rainfall events.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wind and water erosion and transport in semi‐arid shrubland, grassland and forest ecosystems: quantifying dominance of horizontal wind‐driven transport

Breshears

Whicker

Johansen

et al. 2003

Earth Surf Processes Landf

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Soil erosion is an important process in dryland ecosystems, yet measurements and comparisons of wind and water erosion within and among such ecosystems are lacking. Here we compare wind erosion and transport field measurements with water erosion and transport from rainfall-simulation for three different semi-arid ecosystems: a shrubland near Carlsbad, New Mexico; a grassland near Denver, Colorado; and a forest near Los Alamos, New Mexico. In addition to comparing erosion loss from an area, we propose a framework for comparing horizontal mass transport of wind-and water-driven materials as a metric for local soil redistribution. Median erosion rates from wind for vertical mass flux measurements (g m −2 d −1 ) were 1·5 × 10 −2 for the shrubland, 8·3 × 10 −3 for the grassland, and 9·1 × 10 −3 for the forest. Wind-driven transport from horizontal mass flux measurements was greatest in the shrubland (15·0 g m) followed by the grassland (1·5 g m −2 d −1 ) and the forest sites (0·17 g m −2 d −1 ). Annual projections accounting for longer-term site meteorology suggest that wind erosion exceeds water erosion at the shrubland by c. 33 times and by c. five times at the forest, but not the grassland site, where the high clay content of the soils contributed to greater amounts of water erosion: water erosion exceeded wind erosion by about three times. Horizontal transport by wind was greater than that by water for all three systems, overwhelmingly so in the shrubland (factor of c. 2200). Our results, which include some of the only wind erosion measurements to date for semi-arid grasslands and forests, provide a basis for hypothesizing trends in wind and water erosion among ecosystems, highlight the importance of wind erosion and transport in semi-arid ecosystems, and have implications for land surface geomorphology, contaminant transport, and ecosystem biogeochemistry.

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Quantifying Postfire Aeolian Sediment Transport Using Rare Earth Element Tracers

et al. 2018

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Grasslands, which provide fundamental ecosystem services in many arid and semiarid regions of the world, are undergoing rapid increases in fire activity and are highly susceptible to postfire‐accelerated soil erosion by wind. A quantitative assessment of physical processes that integrates fire‐wind erosion feedbacks is therefore needed relative to vegetation change, soil biogeochemical cycling, air quality, and landscape evolution. We investigated the applicability of a novel tracer technique—the use of multiple rare earth elements (REE)—to quantify soil transport by wind and to identify sources and sinks of wind‐blown sediments in both burned and unburned shrub‐grass transition zone in the Chihuahuan Desert, NM, USA. Results indicate that the horizontal mass flux of wind‐borne sediment increased approximately threefold following the fire. The REE tracer analysis of wind‐borne sediments shows that the source of the horizontal mass flux in the unburned site was derived from bare microsites (88.5%), while in the burned site it was primarily sourced from shrub (42.3%) and bare (39.1%) microsites. Vegetated microsites which were predominantly sinks of aeolian sediments in the unburned areas became sediment sources following the fire. The burned areas showed a spatial homogenization of sediment tracers, highlighting a potential negative feedback on landscape heterogeneity induced by shrub encroachment into grasslands. Though fires are known to increase aeolian sediment transport, accompanying changes in the sources and sinks of wind‐borne sediments may influence biogeochemical cycling and land degradation dynamics. Furthermore, our experiment demonstrated that REEs can be used as reliable tracers for field‐scale aeolian studies.

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Temporal and Spatial Variation of Episodic Wind Erosion in Unburned and Burned Semiarid Shrubland

Cited by 75 publications

References 0 publications

Aeolian nutrient fluxes following wildfire in sagebrush steppe: implications for soil carbon storage

Aeolian nutrient fluxes following wildfire in sagebrush steppe: implications for soil carbon storage

Wind and water erosion and transport in semi‐arid shrubland, grassland and forest ecosystems: quantifying dominance of horizontal wind‐driven transport

Quantifying Postfire Aeolian Sediment Transport Using Rare Earth Element Tracers

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