Journal
ACS ES&T WATER
Volume 1, Issue 5, Pages 1274-1282Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acsestwater.1c00015
Keywords
pyrogenic carbon; disinfection byproducts; ultra-high-resolution mass spectrometry; chemical fingerprint; dissolved organic matter; chloramination; fire
Categories
Funding
- U.S. EPA (National Priorities Grant) [R835864]
- NIFA [2018-67019-27795]
- Office of Biological and Environmental Research [grid.436923.9]
- EPA [R835864, 909758] Funding Source: Federal RePORTER
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The study evaluated the impacts of prescribed burns on water quality and found that the burned watershed had an increased ratio of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) to dissolved total nitrogen (DTN) and also showed higher haloacetic acid yield after the burn. Despite similar molecular size distributions, more features were found in the burned watershed, suggesting that prescribed fire poses only moderate impacts on water quality.
We evaluated impacts of prescribed burns on water quality by performing field sampling on adjacent first-order watersheds (Santee Experimental Forest, South Carolina), where one of the watersheds underwent a prescribed burn in 2016. We measured water quality parameters [dissolved organic carbon (DOC), nitrogen species, UV254 absorbance, and disinfection byproduct formation potential during chlorination and chloramination] before and after the burn. Using ultra-high-resolution mass spectrometry, we characterized dissolved organic matter features in raw water collected during the first postburn storm, as well as after chlorination and chloramination. After the burn, the median DOC to dissolved total nitrogen (DTN) ratio increased by 1.88 mg of DOC (mg of DTN)(-1) in the burned watershed. Likewise, the burned watershed showed a brief higher haloacetic acid yield after the burn [median of 95.6 mu g (mg of DOC)(-1)] compared to that of the unburned watershed. Despite similar molecular size distributions, more features were found (m/z 700-1000) for condensed aromatics and lignin-like features in the burned watershed. 'While chlorination yielded similar organohalogen diversity, chloramination yielded more halogenated molecular features in the burned watershed (m/z 300-600). The moderate impacts on DOC in this study suggest that prescribed fire likely poses a low risk to water quality.
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