HR: 0800h
AN: H51C-0368    [Abstracts]
TI: Initial watershed response to boreal forest fires in Interior Alaska
AU: * Toniolo, H A
EM: ffhat@uaf.edu
AF: Water and Environmental Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, PO Box: 755900, Fairbanks, AK 99775-5900 United States
AU: Kodial, P
EM: ftpsk@uaf.edu
AF: Water and Environmental Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, PO Box: 755900, Fairbanks, AK 99775-5900 United States
AB: The summer of 2004 in Alaska was characterized by enormous and devastating boreal forest fires. Small streams draining water from areas affected by fires in different proportions (i.e.: unburned, partially and severally burned) were systematically sampled during the summer of 2005. All the streams were located in watersheds underlain by discontinuous permafrost, perennially frozen soils, in Interior Alaska. In order to collect daily water samples, autosamplers were deployed in the streams after spring breakup. Pressure transducers and dataloggers in conjunction with velocity measurements were used to estimate water discharge in the streams. Human influence is negligible in the study areas, with the exception of modifications caused by the firefighters. Thus, collected data from these areas can be considered as a natural system response to forest fires. Preliminary results from samples collected from two watersheds with similar percentage of underlain permafrost (around 18 % of the total area) indicate a consistent trend of higher suspended loads in the stream located in a partially burned area compared to the stream located in a pristine, fire-free basin.
DE: 1803 Anthropogenic effects (4802, 4902)
DE: 1815 Erosion
DE: 1824 Geomorphology: general (1625)
DE: 1827 Glaciology (0736, 0776, 1863)
DE: 1860 Streamflow
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005