SGER: Rapid Response to California Wildfires: Effect of Fire on Delivery of Organic Carbon to the Fluvial System

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Fire causes drastic changes to organic carbon, converting organic materials to relatively inert fire-derived organic carbon, including charcoal. Additionally, fire can denude watersheds of vegetation and soil cover, which causes major increases in flooding and erosion. It has been estimated that 70% of the long-term sediment yield from rivers in chaparral systems may be a result of fire. Further, eroded soils and sediments are usually enriched in particles carrying organic carbon. Therefore, it is possible that 70% of the organic carbon delivered to the fluvial network of chaparral systems is a result of fire. The combination of these characteristics makes fire an important agent in delivering organic carbon to continental margin sediments, where it could reside as a long-term atmospheric CO2 sink. The Basin Complex and Indians fires in the Salinas River drainage basin of central California burned nearly 240,000 acres of chaparral, scrubland, forests, savanna, and grasslands. This project will address the role of fire in the delivery of organic carbon to rivers from these fire-prone environments. Combined with ongoing research in the Salinas River, Monterey Bay, and Pacific Ocean, this research will contribute to the understanding of fire's role in the delivery of organic carbon from its terrestrial source to its sink in the marine environment. This project will support one postdoctoral researcher and one undergraduate student. The postdoctoral researcher will gain valuable experience developing a research program, and teaching and mentoring undergraduate students, who will be involved in all aspects of the field and laboratory work.