Fire and water. Timeless, opposing forces, they are actually linked in powerful ways that can have major impacts on communities and ecosystems.
The 2011 Las Conchas mega-fire in New Mexico burned more than 150,000 acres and threatened the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Now, using data from the fire, researchers at Los Alamos have created an experimental model that will help us better understand the interactions of fire and water in the soil.
Adam Atchley, a researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and his team set off with a goal: to evaluate how the soil's water balance changes before and after a fire, depending on the burn severity.
They designed an experimental model to simulate the effects of wildfire on the water balance of a burned site. The model used actual site condition measurements in the Las Conchas fire region. These measurements were taken several years before the fire by the Bandelier Fire Ecology Field Team. The model also incorporated burn severity data from the wildfire.
Read more at American Society of Agronomy
Image: The 2011 Las Conchas mega-fire in New Mexico burned more than 150,000 acres and threatened the Los Alamos National Laboratory. (Credit: Brian Klieson)