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| Titel |
Soil-water dynamics and unsaturated storage during snowmelt following wildfire |
| VerfasserIn |
B. A. Ebel, E. S. Hinckley, D. A. Martin |
| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| ISSN |
1027-5606
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| Digitales Dokument |
URL |
| Erschienen |
In: Hydrology and Earth System Sciences ; 16, no. 5 ; Nr. 16, no. 5 (2012-05-15), S.1401-1417 |
| Datensatznummer |
250013296
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 copernicus.org/hess-16-1401-2012.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| Many forested watersheds with a substantial fraction of precipitation
delivered as snow have the potential for landscape disturbance by wildfire.
Little is known about the immediate effects of wildfire on snowmelt and
near-surface hydrologic responses, including soil-water storage. Montane
systems at the rain-snow transition have soil-water dynamics that are
further complicated during the snowmelt period by strong aspect controls on
snowmelt and soil thawing. Here we present data from field measurements of
snow hydrology and subsurface hydrologic and temperature responses during
the first winter and spring after the September 2010 Fourmile Canyon Fire in
Colorado, USA. Our observations of soil-water content and soil temperature
show sharp contrasts in hydrologic and thermal conditions between north- and
south-facing slopes. South-facing burned soils were ∼1–2 °C warmer
on average than north-facing burned soils and ∼1.5 °C warmer than
south-facing unburned soils, which affected soil thawing during the snowmelt
period. Soil-water dynamics also differed by aspect: in response to soil
thawing, soil-water content increased approximately one month earlier on
south-facing burned slopes than on north-facing burned slopes. While aspect
and wildfire affect soil-water dynamics during snowmelt, soil-water storage
at the end of the snowmelt period reached the value at field capacity for
each plot, suggesting that post-snowmelt unsaturated storage was not
substantially influenced by aspect in wildfire-affected areas. Our data and
analysis indicate that the amount of snowmelt-driven groundwater recharge
may be larger in wildfire-impacted areas, especially on south-facing slopes,
because of earlier soil thaw and longer durations of soil-water contents
above field capacity in those areas. |
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