Abstract
Wildfires are a common disturbance in boreal regions and have the potential to affect the waterborne export of organic matter and nutrients from burned catchments. To understand the effect of fire on shallow groundwater chemistry in a forested peatland in northern Alberta, Canada, shallow groundwater monitoring wells were sampled before and after a prescribed burn. The samples were collected from control and treatment wells between May and August 2019. The results indicate no differences in dissolved organic matter concentration and chemical composition between wells in burned and unburned sections but substantially increased nutrient concentrations were found in the burned section. Here, the levels of phosphorus increased and did not return to pre-fire levels at the end of the monitoring period, while the levels of inorganic nitrogen increased and returned to pre-fire levels within a few months. With increasing wildfire activity, or as a result of prescribed burns in the Boreal Plains, we may see implications for downstream water quality, including lake trophic status.
Highlights
The landscape in the Boreal Plains of northern Alberta, Canada, is composed of forests, peatlands, and lakes
There was no strong evidence of the prescribed burn affecting dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations in shallow groundwater
DOC concentrations in the unburned section were similar over the monitoring period and among wells, varying between 61.2 and 77.6 mg L−1 (Figure 2, Table S1)
Summary
The landscape in the Boreal Plains of northern Alberta, Canada, is composed of forests, peatlands, and lakes. When peatlands are hydrologically connected to lakes and streams, they are important sources of nutrients and dissolved organic matter (DOM) for downstream ecosystems [1]. Studies from different boreal regions show that peatland cover can be a strong predictor of DOM and nutrient export [2,3]. Excess of nutrients leads to eutrophication in lakes, and DOM affects light conditions and carbon fluxes, while both influence the functioning of aquatic food webs, and the aquatic greenhouse gas exchange with the atmosphere. Phosphorus, and organic carbon stored within peatlands are susceptible to release through landscape disturbances [4]. It is, not fully known how disturbances such as wildfires affect the export of DOM and nutrients from peatlands to downstream ecosystems. The wildfire impacts are not well characterized, in part, because most studies are initiated only after the fire, without any pre-fire data, which can make it hard to detect change
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