Abstract

The NSF-funded Catalina-Jemez Critical Zone Observatory (CZO) studies couplings among hydrologic, lithologic, ecological, and geochemical dynamics in the Southwest U.S. The motivation to study this region is to understand and to develop predictive models of how slow changes and abrupt disturbances affect landscape evolution and water resources for growing urban populations. One of the prevalent disturbances in Southwestern forested ecosystems is fire, which can dramatically alter near surface hydraulic properties and cause large changes in hydrological response in catchments. This poster will present a unique data set of pre- and post-fire infiltration and subsurface data collected before and shortly after the June 2013 Thompson Ridge Fire near Redondo Peak in the Valles Caldera 10 miles north of Jemez Springs, NM. Single ring pre-fire infiltration measurements were taken in July 2011 at 22 different locations with high-precision GPS tags. Similar post-fire infiltration measurements were taken within 1 meter of spatial accuracy of the pre-fire measurements in July 2013. The near-surface soil was analyzed for texture and organic matter content at 53 GPS-referenced locations in 2011, and a more detailed soil analysis is currently being analyzed in the laboratory for the 22 infiltration sites (5 depth increments down to about 50 cm). Because of the recent nature of the burn and subsequent sampling, complete results from data analysis are not yet available, however, the poster will provide a statistical analysis among pre- and post fire infiltration rates, established burn intensity classes, and subsurface changes such as soil texture and organic matter content.

Citation

Kopp E.S., Pohlmann M.A., Jones C.A., Chorover J., Schaap M.G. (2013): Pre- and Post-Fire Infiltration Rates in a Montane Mixed Conifer Ecosystem. Abstract B33D-0509 presented at 2013 Fall Meeting, AGU, San Francisco, CA, 9-13 Dec..

This Paper/Book acknowledges NSF CZO grant support.