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Sustained Biogeochemical Impacts of Wildfire in a Mountain Lake Catchment

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ABSTRACT

Wild and prescribed fires can cause severe deterioration in water quality, including increases in sediment, nutrients and dissolved organic carbon (DOC). Due to the unpredictability of wildfires, few studies have been able to employ before-after, control-intervention experimental designs, or to evaluate fire-induced water-quality changes in the context of long-term datasets. Here, we present data from a lake draining a moorland catchment in the United Kingdom, part of a 22-site, 25 year monitoring network, which experienced a major wildfire in 2011. The main water-quality response was a large, sustained increase in nitrate concentrations, sufficient to raise acidity and aluminium concentrations, effectively reversing over a decade of recovery from the effects of acid deposition. Concurrently, we observed a clear reduction in DOC concentrations, contrasting with prescribed fire studies from similar ecosystems (none based on before-after studies) that have suggested that burning causes DOC to increase. However, data from a downstream water supply reservoir do suggest a fire-induced change in DOC quality towards more soil-derived aromatic organic compounds, and lake sediment data suggest a large increase in particulate organic carbon. We conclude that the biogeochemical responses to wildfire in our moorland catchment were broadly similar to those observed in forest ecosystems elsewhere, but that historically high nitrogen deposition has made the ecosystem particularly susceptible to nitrate leaching and (re-)acidification. The observed reduction in DOC concentrations casts some doubt on the widely held view that prescribed burning in moorland systems has contributed to long-term DOC increases.

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Acknowledgements

The UWMN is supported by a consortium of UK organisations including the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Natural Environment Research Council, Department of the Environment Northern Ireland, Scottish Government through Marine Scotland Science, Welsh Government, Natural Resources Wales, Forestry Commission, Environment Agency, Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, Queen Mary University of London and ENSIS/ECRC, University College London. We are grateful to Northern Ireland Water for provision of their raw water monitoring data, to Mark McDermott for information on analytical methods, to Charles McRobert for permission to use photographs, and to Stephen Hart and two reviewers for their help in improving the manuscript.

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  1. A. Crilly

    Present address: Scottish Water, 55 Buckstone Terrace, Edinburgh, EH10 6XH, UK

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Bangor, LL57 2UW, UK

    C. D. Evans & D. Norris

  2. Freshwater Laboratory, Marine Scotland, Faskally, Pitlochry, Perthshire, PH16 5LB, UK

    I. A. Malcolm

  3. Department of Geography, Environmental Change Research Centre, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK

    E. M. Shilland, N. L. Rose & S. D. Turner

  4. Northern Ireland Water, Westland House 40 Old Westland Road, Belfast, BT14 6TE, UK

    A. Crilly

  5. Department of Ecology and Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden

    G. Granath

  6. Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Lancaster Environment Centre, Library Avenue, Bailrigg, Lancaster, LA1 4AP, UK

    D. T. Monteith

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Author Contributions

CDE conceived the study, led the analysis of water chemistry data, and drafted the manuscript. IAM, EMS, DTM and DN all contributed to the Blue Lough monitoring study including data management, analysis and interpretation, EMS also contributed local pre- and post-fire observations from Blue Lough. NLR and SDT provided, analysed and interpreted the lake sediment data, whilst AC provided data and information for the Mourne water supply network. GG provided expertise on ecosystem responses to fire and helped to place findings in an international context. All authors contributed to the production of the draft manuscript and to subsequent revisions.

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Evans, C.D., Malcolm, I.A., Shilland, E.M. et al. Sustained Biogeochemical Impacts of Wildfire in a Mountain Lake Catchment. Ecosystems 20, 813–829 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-016-0064-1

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