Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Effects of prescribed burning and drought on the solute chemistry of mixed-conifer forest streams of the Sierra Nevada, California

  • Published:
Biogeochemistry Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Solute concentrations in atmospheric depositionand stream water were measured in two mixed-conifercatchments (Tharp‘s and Log creeks) in the SierraNevada of California from 1984 through 1995, a periodincluding a 6-year drought and a prescribed burn inone catchment. The effects of prescribed burning inthe Tharp‘s Creek catchment significantly increasedthe concentrations of most solutes in stream water. In the first year after prescribed burning, the VWM(volume-weighted mean) concentrations of acid anionsin stream water increased proportionally more thanthose of the base cations, and ANC (acid neutralizingcapacity) more than doubled. Sulfate and NO -3 increased proportionally more in streamwater than any other ions after the fire, but pre- andpost-burn VWM pH were not significantlydifferent. VWM SO 2-4 and NO -3 concentrations the first year after burning occurredwere about 16- and 2,000-fold above pre-burnbaselines, respectively, while that of Cl-increased 4-fold. Net retention (precipitationinputs minus streamwater outputs) of H+,NO -3 , NH +3 , SO 2-4 and Cl- occurred in both catchments, except afterprescribed burning of the Tharp’s Creek catchment inthe fall of 1990, which caused a net export ofSO 2-4 , Cl- and K+ thefirst year after the burn. Most solutes remained abovepre-disturbance concentrations by the end of the thirdyear after burning, whereas H+ and SiO2remained below. Periodic increases in theconcentrations of Na+, Ca2+ and SO 2-4 , and decreases in ANC and SiO2occurred during a 6-year drought monitored in theadjacent undisturbed catchment of Log Creek.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • American Public Health Association-APHA (1981) Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater. 15th edition, Washington, DC

  • Andersen JM (1976) An ignition method for determination of total phosphorus in lake sediments. Wat. Res. 10: 329–331

    Google Scholar 

  • Bayley SE & Schindler DW (1987) Sources of alkalinity in Precambrian Shield watershed streams under natural conditions and after fire or acidification. In: Hutchinson TC & Havas M (Eds) Effects of Atmospheric Pollutants on Forests, Wetlands and Agricultural Ecosystems. Springer-Verlag, New York, pp 531–548

    Google Scholar 

  • Bayley SE & Schindler DW (1991) The role of fire in determining streamwater chemistry in northern coniferous forests. In: Mooney HA, Medina E, Schindler DW, Schulze ED & Walker BH (Eds) Ecosystem Experiments. SCOPE 45, John Wiley & Sons, New York, pp 141–165

    Google Scholar 

  • Bayley SE, Schindler DW, Keaty KG, Parker PB & Stainton MP (1992a) Effects of multiple fires on nutrient yields from streams draining boreal forest and fen watersheds: nitrogen and phosphorus. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 49: 584–596

    Google Scholar 

  • Bayley SE, Schindler DW, Parker BR, Stainton MP & Beaty KG (1992b) Effects of forest fire and drought on acidity of a base-poor boreal forest stream: similarities between climatic warming and acidic precipitation. Biogeochemistry 17: 191–204

    Google Scholar 

  • Braekee FH (1981) Hydrochemistry of high altitude catchments in South Norway. I. Effects of summer drought and soil vegetation. Medd. Nor. Inst. Skogforsk. 36: 1–26

    Google Scholar 

  • Chao TT, Harwood ME & Fang SE (1964). Iron or aluminum coatings in relation to sulfate adsorption characteristics of soils. Soi. Sci. Soc. Am. Proc. 28: 632–635

    Google Scholar 

  • Chorover J, Vitousek PM, Everson DA, Esperanza AM & Turner D (1994) Solution chemistry profiles of mixed-conifer forests before and after fire. Biogeochemistry 26: 115–144

    Google Scholar 

  • Correll DL, Goff NM & Peterjohn WT (1984) Ion balances between precipitation inputs and Rhode River watershed discharge. In: Birker OP (Ed) Biological Aspects of Acid Deposition. Butterworth Publ., Boston, Chapter 5

    Google Scholar 

  • Elwood JW, Newbold JD, Trimble AF & Stark RW (1981) The limiting role of phosphorus in a woodland stream ecosystem: effects of P enrichment on leaf decomposition and primary producers. Ecology 62: 146–158

    Google Scholar 

  • Feller MC & Kimmins JP (1984) Effects of clearcutting and slash burning on stream water chemistry and watershed nutrient budgets in southwestern British Columbia. Wat. Resour. Res. 20: 29–40

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitzgerald JW, Strickland TC & Swank WT (1982) Metabolic fate of inorganic sulfate in soil samples from undisturbed and managed forest ecosystems. Soi. Biol. Biogeo. 14: 529–536

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitzgerald JW, Swank WT, Strickland TC, Ash JT, Hale DD, Andrew TL & Watwood ME (1988) Sulfur pools and transformations in litter and surface soil of a hardwood forest. In: Swank WT & Crossley DA (Eds) Forest Hydrology and Ecology at Coweeta. Ecological Studies, Vol. 66, Springer-Verlag, New York, pp 236–254

    Google Scholar 

  • Foster NW & Morrison IK (1976) Distribution and cycling of nutrients in a natural Pinus banksianaecosystem. Ecology 57: 110–120

    Google Scholar 

  • Gosz JR (1981) Nitrogen cycling in coniferous ecosystems. Ecol. Bull. (Stockholm) 33: 415–426

    Google Scholar 

  • Gran G (1950) Determination of the equivalent point in potentiometric titrations. Acta Chem. Scan. 4: 559–577

    Google Scholar 

  • Gran G (1952) Determination of the equivalent point in potentiometric titrations: Part 2. Analyst 77: 661–671

    Google Scholar 

  • Grier CC (1975) Wildfire effects on nutrient distribution and leaching in a coniferous ecosystem. Can. J. For. Res. 5: 599–607

    Google Scholar 

  • Huntington GL & Akeson M (1987) Pedologic investigations in support of acid rain studies: soil resource inventory of Sequoia National Park, central part, California. Final Report to the National Park Service8005-2-002. Sequoia National Park, Three Rivers, CA

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson DW, Van Miegroet H & Kelly JM (1986) Sulfur cycling in five forest ecosystems. Wat. Air Soi. Pollut. 30: 965–979

    Google Scholar 

  • Kilgore BM & Taylor D (1979) Fire history of a sequoia mixed conifer forest. Ecology 60: 129–142

    Google Scholar 

  • Knight DH, Fahey TJ & Running SW (1985) Water and nutrient outflow from contrasting lodgepole pine forests in Wyoming. Ecol. Monogr. 55: 29–48

    Google Scholar 

  • Likens GE, Bormann FH & Johnson NM (1969) Nitrification: importance to nutrient losses from a cutover forested ecosystem. Science 163: 1205–1206

    Google Scholar 

  • Likens GE, Bormann FH, Johnson NM, Fisher DW & Pierce RS (1970) Effects of forest cutting and herbicide treatment on nutrient budgets in the Hubbard Brook watershed ecosystem. Ecol. Monogr. 40: 23–47

    Google Scholar 

  • Likens GE & Bormann FH (1995) Biogeochemistry of a Forested Ecosystem. Springer-Verlag, New York, 2nd ed., 159 p

    Google Scholar 

  • Lobert JM, Scharffe DH, HaoWM, Kuhlbusch TA, Seuwen R, Warneck P & Crutzen PJ (1991) Biomass burning emissions: nitrogen and carbon containing compounds. In: Levine JS (Ed) Global Biomass Burning, MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 289–304

    Google Scholar 

  • McColl JG & Grigal DF (1975) Forest fire: Effects on phosphorus movement to lakes. Science 188: 1109–1111

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell MJ, David MG & Harrison R (1991) Sulfur dynamics of forest ecosystems. In: Howarth R & Stewart J (Eds) Sulfur Biogeochemistry. SCOPE,Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Minshall GW, Brock JT & Varley JD (1989) Wildfires and Yellowstone's stream ecosystems. Bioscience 39: 707–715

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer JL, McDowell WH, Bott TL, Elwood JW, Ishizaki C, Melack JM, Peckarsky BL, Peterson BJ & Rublee PA (1988) Elemental dynamics in streams. J. N. Am. Benthol. Soc. 7: 410–432

    Google Scholar 

  • Nakane K, Kusada S, Mitsudera M & Tsubota H (1983) Effects of fire on water and major nutrient budgets in forest ecosystems. II. Nutrient balances, input (precipitation) and output (discharge). Jap. J. Ecol. 33: 333–345

    Google Scholar 

  • Nodvin SC, Driscoll CT & Likens GE (1986) The effects of pH on sulfate adsorption in a forest soil. Soil Science 142: 69–75

    Google Scholar 

  • Peterson BJ, Hobbie JE, Hershey AE, Lock MA, Ford TE, Vestal JR, McKinley VL, Hullan MAJ, Miller MC, Ventullo RM & Volk GS (1985) Transformation of a tundra river from heterotrophy to autotrophy by addition of phosphorus. Science 229: 1383–1386

    Google Scholar 

  • Raison RJ (1979) Modification of the soil environment by vegetation fires, with particular reference to nitrogen transformations: a review. Plant Soil 51: 73–108

    Google Scholar 

  • Richter D, Ralston CW & Harms WR (1982) Prescribed fire: effects on water quality and forest nutrient cycling. Science 215: 661–663

    Google Scholar 

  • Schindler DW, Newbury RW, Beaty KG, Prokopowich J, Ruszczynski T & Dalton JA (1980) Effects of a windstorm and forest fire on chemical losses from forested watersheds and on the quality of receiving streams. Can. J. Fish. Aq. Sci. 50: 17–29

    Google Scholar 

  • Schoch P & Binkley D (1986) Prescribed burning increased nitrogen availability in a mature loblolly pine stand. Forest Ecol. Man. 14: 13–22

    Google Scholar 

  • Spencer CN & Hauer FR (1991) Phosphorus and nitrogen dynamics in streams during a wildfire. J. N. Am. Benthol. Soc. 10: 24–30

    Google Scholar 

  • St. John TV & Rundel PW(1976) The role of fire as a mineralizing agent in a Sierran coniferous forest. Oecologia 25: 35–45

    Google Scholar 

  • Stohlgren TJ, Melack JM, Esperanza AM & Parsons DJ (1991) Atmospheric deposition and solute export in giant sequoia-mixed conifer watersheds in the Sierra Nevada, California. Biogeochemistry 12: 207–230

    Google Scholar 

  • Stanko KM & Fitzgerald JW (1990) Sulfur transformations in forest soils collected along an elevation gradient. Soi. Bio. Biochem. 22: 213–216

    Google Scholar 

  • Stephens SL (1995) Effects of prescribed and simulated fire and forest history of giant sequoia-mixed-conifer ecosystems of the Sierra Nevada, California, PhD dissertation, UCB, 108 p

  • Stottlemyer R (1987) Natural and anthropic factors as determinants of long-term streamwater chemistry. In: Troendle CA, Kaufmann MR, Hamre RH & Winokur RP (Eds)Management of Subalpine Forests: Building on 50 Years of Research. U.S. For. Serv. Rocky Mount. For. Range Exp. Stn., Gen. Tech. Rep., RM-149, pp 86–94

  • Stottlemyer R & Troendle CA (1987) Trends in streamwater chemistry and input-output balances, Fraser Experimental Forest, Colorado. U.S. For. Serv. Res. Pap. RM-275, 9 p

  • Strickland JDH & Parsons TR (1972) A Practical Handbook for Seawater Analysis. 2nd edition, Bull. Fish. Res. Bd. Can. 167 p

  • SwankWT (1988) Stream chemistry responses to disturbance. In: Swank WT & Crossley DA (Eds) Forest Hydrology and Ecology at Coweeta. Springer-Verlag, New York, pp 339–357

    Google Scholar 

  • Swank WT & Waide JB (1988) Characterization of baseline precipitation and stream chemistry and nutrient budgets for control watersheds. In: Swank WT & Crossley DA (Eds) Forest Hydrology and Ecology at Coweeta. Springer-Verlag, New York, pp 57–79

    Google Scholar 

  • Swetnam TW(1993) Fire history and climate change in sequoia groves. Science 262: 885–889

    Google Scholar 

  • Tiedemann AR, Helvey JD & Anderson TD (1978) Stream chemistry and watershed nutrient economy following wildfire and fertilization in eastern Washington. J. Environ. Qual. 7: 580–588

    Google Scholar 

  • Viro PJ (1974) Effects of fire on soil. In: Kozlowski TT & Ahlgren CE (Eds) Fire and Ecosystems. Academic Press, New York, 542 p, pp 7–46

    Google Scholar 

  • Vitousek PM, Gosz JR, Grier CC, Melillo JM, Reiners WA & Todd RL (1979) Nitrate losses from disturbed ecosystems. Science 204: 469–474

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams MW, TR Fisher & JM Melack (1997) Solute dynamics in soil water and groundwater in a central Amazon catchment undergoing deforestation. Biogeochemistry, in press

  • Williams MW & Melack JM (1997) Atmospheric deposition, mass balances, and processes regulating streamwater solute concentrations in mixed-conifer catchments of the Sierra Nevada, California. Biogeochemistry 37: 111–144

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright RF (1976) The impact of forest fire on the nutrient influxes to small lakes in northeastern Minnesota. Ecology 57: 649–663

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Computational Earth System Science (ICESS) and Marine Science Institute (MSI), University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, U.S.A

    Michael R. Williams & John M. Melack

Authors
  1. Michael R. Williams
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. John M. Melack
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Williams, M.R., Melack, J.M. Effects of prescribed burning and drought on the solute chemistry of mixed-conifer forest streams of the Sierra Nevada, California. Biogeochemistry 39, 225–253 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005858219050

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005858219050

Search

Navigation