RAPID: Forest fire effects on snow-water storage and downstream water quantity, quality, and timing of availability

需要立即战略性地部署仪器和现场采样，以捕捉俄勒冈州西部瀑布地区前所未有的森林火灾对雪水文以及下游水资源可用性的数量、质量和时间的初步影响。该研究项目将量化火灾后对流域水文和桑蒂亚姆河上游下游水质的直接影响。桑蒂亚姆河在最近的历史上没有燃烧过，为数十万人提供饮用水。这项研究将汇集水源水文学、火灾和森林生态学研究人员，同时支持一名女性早期职业教师、一名博士生和一名女性硕士学生进行新的研究合作，发展跨联邦机构的关系和合作。这项研究将促进知情的火灾后政策和管理决策，从而减少火灾后的成本和对公共卫生的风险，并维持长期的水安全。森林火灾可能会增加积雪的积累，但会加速融雪速度，并在火灾发生后的数年内提前积雪消失的时间和相关的峰值流量。这种提前的春季冲刷可能会改变下游水资源可用性的时间，并将沉积物和营养物质动员到关键的水源地区。利用森林、河流和积雪监测，本研究将量化火灾后第一个冬季的雪水量、融雪速率和时间、土壤湿度、河流流量、下游浊度、土壤和森林燃烧严重程度以及天气随海拔的变化。这第一个季节的数据将启动未来的研究，以更广泛和深入地了解将火灾后森林结构与雪水文和下游水资源可用性联系起来的模式和过程。加深对火灾后林隙和森林结构如何优化雪水储存和保留的理解，并将促进政策和管理决策，以减轻气候变化对脆弱雪水资源的影响。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Immediate strategic deployment of instrumentation and field sampling is needed to capture the initial impacts of the unprecedented forest fires in the western Oregon Cascades on snow hydrology and quantity, quality, and timing of downstream water resource availability. The research project will quantify immediate post-fire impacts on watershed hydrology and downstream water quality in the headwaters of the Santiam River, which have not burned in recent history and provide drinking water to hundreds of thousands of people. The research will bring together headwater hydrology, fire, and forest ecology researchers, while supporting a female early career faculty, a PhD student, and a female MS student in a new research collaboration, developing relationships and cooperation across federal agencies. This research will facilitate informed post-fire policy and management decisions that will reduce post-wildfire costs and risks to public health and maintain long-term water security.Forest fires may increase snow accumulation, but accelerate snowmelt rates, and advance the timing of snow disappearance and associated peak streamflow for years following fire. This advanced spring flush will likely alter the timing of downstream water resource availability, as well as mobilize sediment and nutrients into critical water source areas. Using forest, stream, and snow monitoring, this research will quantify snow-water volume, snowmelt rate and timing, soil moisture, streamflow, downstream turbidity, soil and forest burn severities, and weather variability with elevation during the first winter after fire. This first season of data will initiate future research to more broadly and deeply understand the patterns and processes linking post-fire forest structure to snow hydrology and downstream water resource availability. Improved understanding of how the mosaic of post-fire gaps and forest structure may optimize snow-water storage, retention, and will facilitate policy and management decisions to mitigate the impacts of climate change on vulnerable snow-water resources.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.