Impacts of fire on the suspension and erosion potential of soils

Soil stabilization where shrub communities have burned is of great concern in the Western US. These studies make use of post fire measurements of water and wind soil erosion at lightning-caused fire and a prescribed fire location. In one of the studies, while I was with DRI, we quantified erosion at 1, 3, 6, and 13 months after a wildfire. We looked at erosion at the plant mounds as well as in the shrub interspaces and compared the results of the burned areas to an unburned control plot. For the wind erosion studies we made use of the PI-SWERL instrument for measurements of the aeolian erosion potential. This study allows us to determine the chemical content of the burned soil versus unburned soil dust over time. The picture below shows one of the research areas before the burn.

 
The picture below was taken a couple of months after the fire in the same general area. The markers indicate sample locations. The fire totally consumed the shrub in this burn.

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