Heat and smoke from wildfires influence water temperature and dissolved oxygen levels in headwater streams

Wildfire has become increasingly common and severe in forested landscapes across the western United States. Stream and air temperatures within these landscapes are influenced not only by direct heating during the fire but by shading from heavy smoke. In addition, dissolved oxygen (DO) can be affected by increased ash inputs from fire or reduced primary production under lower light conditions. Because collecting data as the event occurs is challenging, most research exploring fire effects on streams has focused on responses months to years after the event as opposed to during and immediately after the fire. We sought to understand how physical stream parameters change as wildfire burns near streams, how stream temperature responses vary through a stream reach, how parameters respond to shading from pervasive smoke during and shortly after the fire, and how fire severity correlates with observed changes. In this study, we report measurements of light, air temperature, stream temperature, and DO across eleven 2(nd)- to 4(th)-order streams in the western Cascade Mountains of Oregon, USA, 1 wk before, during, and 1 wk after an extensive wildfire in 2020. Burning near streams resulted in a brief increase in daily maximum stream temperature of 4.5 degrees C at the most severely burned site but small increases or decreases at less affected sites. Longitudinal replication revealed that temperature responses can be patchy at relatively small scales (similar to 50 m). DO daily minima decreased by 1.3 to 16.9% saturation on the day of the fire, with the magnitude of effect corresponding to burn severity. Across all 11 sites, riparian and watershed estimates of Rapid Assessment of Vegetation Condition after Wildfire and soil burn severity were better correlated with stream temperature responses to fire than percentage of watershed burned. Smoke effects were pervasive, both spatially and temporally, resulting in decreased light, stream temperature maxima, and diurnal variation in DO. Our results suggest that acute changes to physical stream parameters caused minimal harm to aquatic biota at our sites, and the effects of smoke on physical stream parameters will likely impose larger immediate effects on headwater streams than heating from the fire itself.

Automated summary

Wildfires in forested landscapes in the western United States have become more frequent and severe, affecting stream parameters and water quality. The study reveals that stream temperature and dissolved oxygen are significantly influenced by the fire and smoke, and the impact of the fire on streams correlates with burn severity.