Sponsor
This research was supported by the McNair Scholars Program and The Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Fund at Portland State University.
Published In
Water
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-10-2021
Subjects
Fire, Carbon sequestration, Forest management -- Environmental aspects, Wildfires -- West (U.S.) -- Effect of climatic changes on Snowmelt
Abstract
As climate warms, snow-water storage is decreasing while forest fires are increasing in extent, frequency, and duration. The majority of forest fires occur in the seasonal snow zone across the western US. Yet, we do not understand the broad-scale variability of forest fire effects on snow-water storage and water resource availability. Using pre- and post-fire data from 78 burned SNOTEL stations, we evaluated post-fire shifts in snow accumulation (snow-water storage) and snowmelt across the West and Alaska. For a decade following fire, maximum snow-water storage decreased by over 30 mm, and the snow disappearance date advanced by 9 days, and in high severity burned forests snowmelt rate increased by 3 mm/day. Regionally, forest fires reduced snow-water storage in Alaska, Arizona, and the Pacific Northwest and advanced the snow disappearance date across the Rockies, Western Interior, Wasatch, and Uinta mountains. Broad-scale empirical results of forest fire effects on snow-water storage and snowmelt inform natural resource management and modeling of future snow-water resource availability in burned watersheds.
Rights
Copyright (c) 2021 The Authors
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Locate the Document
DOI
10.3390/w13243533
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/37104
Citation Details
Smoot, E.E.; Gleason, K.E. Forest Fires Reduce Snow-Water Storage and Advance the Timing of Snowmelt across the Western U.S. Water 2021, 13, 3533. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13243533