Wind erosion of soils burned by wildfire

Wagenbrenner, N.S.; Germino, M.J.; Lamb, B.K.; Foltz, R.B.; Robichaud, P.R. 2011. Wind erosion of soils burned by wildfire. ISELE Paper Number 11021. CD-Rom Proceedings presented at the International Symposium on Erosion and Landscape Evolution. 18-21 September 2011, Anchorage Alaska. ASABE Publication Number 711P0311cd. 9 p.

Keywords: Wind erosion, Wildfire, Ash, PM10, Burned soil, Air quality

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Abstract: Wind erosion and aeolian transport processes are largely unstudied in the post-wildfire environment, but recent studies have shown that wind erosion can play a major role in burned landscapes. A wind erosion monitoring system was installed immediately following a wildfire in southeastern Idaho, USA to measure wind erosion from the burned area. This paper describes initial findings related to horizontal sediment flux and PM₁₀ (particulate matter with a diameter of less than 10 μm) emissions from the burned area. Several wind erosion events were monitored in the months following the fire. The largest wind erosion event to-date occurred in early September 2010 and produced 570 kg m^-1 of horizontal sediment transport within the first meter above the soil surface and generated a large dust plume that was visible in satellite imagery. The peak PM₁₀ concentration measured on-site at a height of 2 m in the downwind portion of the burned area was 690 mg m^-3. Measured horizontal sediment fluxes and PM₁₀ vertical fluxes are on the upper end of values reported in the wind erosion literature. These initial results indicate that wildfire can convert a relatively wind-resistant landscape into one that produces as much soil and dust as some of the most wind erodible landscapes known, including the US southern high plains and the Loess Plateau in China.

Moscow FSL publication no. 2011i