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Type: Webinar
Presenter(s):
  • Erica R. Siirila-Woodburn
    Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  • Michelle Newcomer
    Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Distribution Contact(s):
Host Agency:
  • University of California-Berkeley
  • University of California-Merced
Publication Date: April 27, 2021

Talk 1

In recent years, wildfires in the western United States have occurred with increasing frequency and scale due to prolonged periods of droughts and increasing temperatures. Wildfires occurring in the headwaters or foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California can have serious implications for water supply, given that up to 70% of state water resources originate from these regions. Despite the significant impact wildfires have in shaping the landscape, their role in altering hydrologic states and fluxes are still highly uncertain due to the strong non-linearities known to exist in the integrated (above- and below- ground) water cycle. Using high performance computing, we simulate a representative watershed that spans the Sierra Nevada-Central Valley interface with and without-landscape changes resulting from wildfires. Model result allow us to identify the regions most hydrologically sensitive to post-wildfire conditions, as well as the processes that are most impacted by landscape changes following a wildfire. For example, increases in snowpack following a wildfire lead to increased summer runoff and groundwater storage. Furthermore, our simulations reveal how sometimes counterintuitive effects may emerge following a wildfire, such as increases in evapotranspiration rates in areas where subsurface flow pathways are altered due to burn scars.

Talk 2

Wildfires are a natural yet changing component of many landscapes around the world. From 2017-2020, a series of multiple fires devastated many forested, agricultural, and urban areas within Sonoma, Mendocino and Napa counties, California, U.S.A, and across the Russian River Watershed. The compounding burn areas provide significant sources for ash-leachate runoff flowing to the Russian River, and nearby tributaries during subsequent rainfall events. In addition, leachate infiltrate to local groundwater basins supports groundwater discharge to the Russian River during the dry season. The central objective of this work is motivated by four research questions to enhance understanding of resilience at the watershed scale: 1) How do compounding fire events impact hydrological, chemical, and microbial conditions of the river corridor network and watershed?, 2) How do post-fire storm events impact hydrological, chemical, and microbial connectivity across the watershed including the tributaries, and main stem?, 3) What hydrobiogeochemical metrics are critical indicators of the watershed resilience and potential thresholds?, and 4) Can such data be used to identify critical resilience tipping points as identified within these observational networks? We introduce point-scale metrics within the river corridor of the Russian River Watershed, a multi-scale watershed network impacted by wildfire. By analyzing these observational metrics as critical signals of entire landscape-scale resilience, this work will inform how resilience is identified, and mechanisms that potentially impart resilience within a landscape.

 

Recording Length: 0:58:37
Online Link(s):
Link to this recording (Streaming; YouTube)

Cataloging Information

Topics:
Regions:
Keywords:
  • evapotranspiration
  • hydrology
  • leachate
  • post-fire runoff
  • resilience
  • river corridors
  • subsurface flow
  • water cycle
  • watershed
Record Last Modified:
Record Maintained By: FRAMES Staff (https://www.frames.gov/contact)
FRAMES Record Number: 63739