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Title: Molecular shifts in dissolved organic matter along a burn severity continuum for common land cover types in the Pacific Northwest, USA

Journal Article · · Science of the Total Environment
ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [4]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [5]; ORCiD logo [6]
  1. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Sequim, WA (United States)
  2. Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States)
  3. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Sequim, WA (United States); Washington State Univ., Pullman, WA (United States)
  4. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States). Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL)
  5. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
  6. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Sequim, WA (United States); Univ. of Toledo, OH (United States)

Increasing wildfire severity is of growing concern in the western United States, with consequences for the production, composition, and mobilization of dissolved organic matter (DOM) from terrestrial to aquatic systems. Our current understanding of wildfire impacted DOM (often termed pyrogenic DOM) composition is largely built from temperature-based studies that can be difficult to extrapolate to field conditions, which are often defined by ‘burn severity’, or the post-wildfire impact observed at a site. Thus, burn severity can encapsulate a broader range of fire and environmental conditions not exclusive to temperature. Biogeochemical studies that describe DOM along burn severity continuums remain limited but are needed to better link DOM composition with field conditions post-fire. Here, in this study, we addressed this need with an experimental open air burn simulation that generated chars from vegetation representative of major land cover types in the western United States. The chars were leached to simulate DOM mobilization potential. The DOM composition was characterized by ultra-high resolution mass spectrometry (HR-MS) and UV/VIS absorbance and fluorescence. Our results indicated that the shifts of DOM production and composition along a burn-severity gradient depends on the land cover type that was burned, with the degree of change dependent on the composition of the starting parent vegetation material. Fluorescence signatures indicated a strong convergence across land cover types to more aromatic DOM with increasing severity, while HR-MS indicated an increase in the production of aromatic nitrogen containing DOM with increasing severity. Results from this study enhance our ability to describe DOM composition in a framework that can be more directly related with field and remote-sensing based metrics.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Earth & Environmental Systems Science (EESS)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
2497778
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA--202284
Journal Information:
Science of the Total Environment, Journal Name: Science of the Total Environment Vol. 958; ISSN 0048-9697
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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