Examining the effect of moisture thresholds on post-fire water-repellent soil: a large-scale modelling approach applied to the Upper Arroyo Seco watershed, California, USA
Nawa Raj Pradhan![https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5210-0896](/media/client/orcid_16x16.png)
A
Abstract
Post-fire studies show that water repellency is limited by moisture conditions, but no existing study has examined this limiting effect at a watershed scale.
This study aimed to identify the soil moisture threshold value at which wildfire-induced hydrophobic condition transitions back to hydrophilic condition at a watershed scale.
The effect of moisture thresholds on post-fire water-repellent soil and hydrological variables including infiltration, runoff volume and peak flow are examined, using the post-wildfire hydrological model of the upper Arroyo Seco watershed, California, following the August 2009 Station Fire.
As the moisture threshold value increased from wilting point towards field capacity, the wildfire’s impact on runoff was greatest near the wilting point, and decreased sharply as the threshold increased. The percentage error in peak flow exponentially decreased as the moisture threshold increased and the corresponding Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency increased. Soil moisture threshold values >0.2 m3/m3 were significantly less sensitive to Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency, infiltration depth and percentage error in peak flow and runoff volume.
At the soil moisture threshold value of 0.25 m3/m3, transition from hydrophobic to hydrophilic conditions occurred. Identification of this watershed-scale soil moisture threshold value allows inclusion of the wildfire-induced hydrophobic transition back to hydrophilic condition in post-fire hydrological modelling of watersheds.
Keywords: burn severity condition, hydrological modelling, hydrophobic to hydrophilic condition, pre-fire and post-fire, SERVES soil moisture estimation, watershed scale, wildfire impacts, wildfire-induced soil hydraulic factors (WISH factors).
References
Abatzoglou JT, Williams AP (2016) Impact of anthropogenic climate change on wildfire across western US forests. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113(42), 11770-11775.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |
Adams MA (2013) Mega-fires, tipping points and ecosystem services: managing forests and woodlands in an uncertain future. Forest Ecology and Management 294, 250-261.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Agbeshie AA, Abugre S, Atta-Darkwa T, Awuah R (2022) A review of the effects of forest fire on soil properties. Journal of Forestry Research 33, 1419-1441.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Bayad M, Chau H W, Trolove S, Moir J, Condron L, Bouray M (2020) The relationship between soil moisture and soil water repellency persistence in hydrophobic soils. Water 12, 2322.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Benda L, Miller D, Bigelow P, Andras K (2003) Effects of post-wildfire erosion on channel environments, Boise River, Idaho. Forest Ecology and Management 178, 105-119.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Bixby RJ, Cooper SD, Gresswell RE, Brown LE, Dahm CN, Dwire KA (2015) Fire effects on aquatic ecosystems: an assessment of the current state of the science. Freshwater Science 34, 1340-1350.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Blake WH, Theocharopoulos SP, Skoulikidis N, Clark P, Tountas P, Hartley R, Amaxidis Y (2010) Wildfire impacts on hillslope sediment and phosphorus yields. Journal of Soils and Sediments 10, 671-682.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Bondur VG, Mokhov II, Voronova OS, Sitnov SA (2020) Satellite monitoring of Siberian wildfires and their effects: features of 2019 anomalies and trends of 20-year changes. Doklady Earth Sciences 492, 370-375.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Bowman DMJS, Williamson GJ, Abatzoglou JT, Kolden CA, Cochrane MA, Smith AMS (2017) Human exposure and sensitivity to globally extreme wildfire events. Nature Ecology & Evolution 1, 58.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |
Brando PM, Soares-Filho B, Rodrigues L, Assunção A, Morton D, Tuchschneider D, Fernandes E, Macedo MN, Oliveira U, Coe MT (2020) The gathering firestorm in southern Amazonia. Science Advances 6, eaay1632.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |
Calkin DE, Thompson MP, Finney MA (2015) Negative consequences of positive feedbacks in US wildfire management. Forest Ecosystems 2, 9.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Cerdà A (1998) The influence of aspect and vegetation on seasonal changes in erosion under rainfall simulation on a clay soil in Spain. Canadian Journal of Soil Science 78, 321-330.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Certini G (2005) Effects of fire on properties of forest soils: a review. Oecologia 143, 1-10.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |
Chen L, Berli M, Chief K (2013) Examining modeling approaches for the rainfall-runoff process in wildfire-affected watersheds: using San Dimas experimental forest. Journal of the American Water Resources Association 49(4), 851-866.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Conard SG, Sukhinin AI, Stocks BJ, Cahoon DR, Davidenko EP, Ivanova GA (2002) Determining effects of area burned and fire severity on carbon cycling and emissions in Siberia. Climatic Change 55, 197-211.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Dahm CN, Candelaria‐Ley RI, Reale CS, Reale JK, Van Horn D J (2015) Extreme water quality degradation following a catastrophic forest fire. Freshwater Biology 60, 2584-2599.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
DeBano LF (2000) The role of fire and soil heating on water repellency in wildland environments: a review. Journal of Hydrology 231–232, 195-206.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
De Jonge LW, Jacobsen OH, Moldrup P (1999) Soil water repellency: effects of water content, temperature, and particle size. Soil Science Society of America Journal 63, 437-442.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Dekker LW, Ritsema CJ (1995) Fingerlike wetting patterns in two water-repellent loam soils. Journal of Environmental Quality 24, 324-333.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Dekker LW, Ritsema CJ (1996) Variation in water content and wetting patterns in Dutch water repellent peaty clay and clayey peat soils. Catena 28, 89-105.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Doerr SH, Thomas AD (2000) The role of soil moisture in controlling water repellency: new evidence from forest soils in Portugal. Journal of Hydrology 231–232, 134-147.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Doerr SH, Shakesby RA, Walsh RPD (2000) Soil water repellency: its causes, characteristics and hydro-geomorphological significance. Earth-Science Reviews 51, 33-65.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Dorigo W, Himmelbauer I, Aberer D, Schremmer L, Petrakovic I, Zappa L, Preimesberger W, Xaver A, Annor F, Ardö J, Baldocchi D, Bitelli M, Blöschl G, Bogena H, Brocca L, Calvet JC, Camarero JJ, Capello G, Choi M, Cosh MC, van de Giesen N, Hajdu I, Ikonen J, Jensen KH, Kanniah KD, de Kat I, Kirchengast G, Kumar Rai P, Kyrouac J, Larson K, Liu S, Loew A, Moghaddam M, Martínez Fernández J, Mattar Bader C, Morbidelli R, Musial JP, Osenga E, Palecki MA, Pellarin T, Petropoulos GP, Pfeil I, Powers J, Robock A, Rüdiger C, Rummel U, Strobel M, Su Z, Sullivan R, Tagesson T, Varlagin A, Vreugdenhil M, Walker J, Wen J, Wenger F, Wigneron JP, Woods M, Yang K, Zeng Y, Zhang X, Zreda M, Dietrich S, Gruber A, van Oevelen P, Wagner W, Scipal K, Drusch M, Sabia R (2021) The International Soil Moisture Network: serving Earth system science for over a decade. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 25, 5749-5804.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Downer CW, Ogden FL (2004) Appropriate vertical discretization of Richard’s equation for two-dimensional watershed-scale modelling. Hydrological Processes 18, 1-22.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Engman ET (1986) Roughness coefficients for routing surface runoff. Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering 112, 39-53.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Fisher GB, Amos CB, Bookhagen B, Burbank DW, Godard V (2012) Channel widths, landslides, faults, and beyond: The new world order of high-spatial resolution Google Earth imagery in the study of earth surface processes. In ‘Google Earth and Virtual Visualizations in Geoscience Education and Research’. (Eds SJ Whitmeyer, JE Bailey, DG De Paor, T Ornduff) pp. 1–22. (Geological Society of America, USA) 10.1130/2012.2492(01)
Foster DR, Knight DH, Franklin JF (1998) Landscape patterns and legacies resulting from large, infrequent forest disturbances. Ecosystems 1, 497-510.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Halofsky JE, Peterson DL, Harvey BJ (2020) Changing wildfire, changing forests: the effects of climate change on fire regimes and vegetation in the Pacific Northwest, USA. Fire Ecology 16, 4.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Harpold A, Brooks P, Rajagopal S, Heidbuchel I, Jardine A, Stielstra C (2012) Changes in snowpack accumulation and ablation in the Intermountain West. Water Resources Research 48, W11501.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
He J, Chen D, Jenkins L, Loboda TV (2021) Impacts of wildfire and landscape factors on organic soil properties in Arctic tussock tundra. Environmental Research Letters 16, 085004.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Green WH, Ampt GA (1911) Studies on soil phyics. The Journal of Agricultural Science 4, 1-24.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Hoch OJ, McGuire LA, Youberg AM, Rengers FK (2021) Hydrogeomorphic recovery and temporal changes in rainfall thresholds for debris flows following wildfire. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface 126(12), e2021JF006374.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Huffman EL, MacDonald LH, Stednick JD (2001) Strength and persistence of fire-induced soil hydrophobicity under ponderosa and lodgepole pine, Colorado Front Range. Hydrological Processes 15, 2877-2892.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Imeson AC, Verstraten JM, van Mulligen EJ, Sevink J (1992) The effects of fire and water repellency on infiltration and runoff under Mediterranean type forest. Catena 19, 345-361.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Jolly WM, Cochrane MA, Freeborn PH, Holden ZA, Brown TJ, Williamson GJ, Bowman DM (2015) Climate-induced variations in global wildfire danger from 1979 to 2013. Nature Communications 6, 7537.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |
Kinoshita AM, Hogue TS (2011) Spatial and temporal controls on post-fire hydrologic recovery in Southern California watersheds. Catena 87, 240-252.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Liu T, McGuire LA, Wei H, Rengers FK, Gupta H, Ji L, Goodrich D C (2021) The timing and magnitude of changes to Hortonian overland flow at the watershed scale during the post‐fire recovery process. Hydrological Processes 35(5), e14208.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Lucas-Borja ME, Bombino G, Carrà BG, D’Agostino D, Denisi P, Labate A, Plaza-Alvarez PA, Zema DA (2020) Modeling the soil response to rainstorms after wildfire and prescribed fire in Mediterranean forests. Climate 8, 150.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
MacDonald LH, Huffman EL (2004) Post-fire soil water repellency: persistence and soil moisture thresholds. Soil Science Society of America Journal 68, 1729-1734.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
McGuire LA, Rengers FK, Kean JW, Staley DM, Mirus BB (2018) Incorporating spatially heterogeneous infiltration capacity into hydrologic models with applications for simulating post‐wildfire debris flow initiation. Hydrological Processes 32, 1173-1187.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Michaelis AC, Gershunov A, Weyant A, Fish MA, Shulgina T, Ralph FM (2022) Atmospheric river precipitation enhanced by climate change: a case study of the storm that contributed to California’s Oroville Dam crisis. Earth’s Future 10, e2021EF002537.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Miller ME, Billmire M, Elliot WJ, Endsley KA, Robichaud PR (2015) Rapid response tools and datasets for post-fire modeling: linking Earth observations and process-based hydrological models to support post-fire remediation. International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing & Spatial Information Sciences XL-7/W3, 469-476.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Moody JA, Kinner DA, Úbeda X (2009) Linking hydraulic properties of fire-affected soils to infiltration and water repellency. Journal of Hydrology 379, 291-303.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Nolan RH, Boer MM, Collins L, Resco de Dios V, Clarke H, Jenkins M, Kenny B, Bradstock RA (2020) Causes and consequences of eastern Australia’s 2019–20 season of mega-fires. Global Change Biology 26, 1039-1041.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |
North MP, Stephens SL, Collins BM, Agee JK, Aplet G, Franklin JF, Fulé PZ (2015) Reform forest fire management. Science 349, 1280-1281.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |
Pradhan NR (2019) Estimating growing-season root zone soil moisture from vegetation index-based evapotranspiration fraction and soil properties in the Northwest Mountain region, USA. Hydrological Sciences Journal 64, 771-788.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Pradhan NR (2023) ‘Soil-Moisture Estimation of Root-Zone through Vegetation-Index-Based Evapotranspiration-Fraction and Soil-Properties (SERVES) User’s Manual Version 1. ERDC/CHL CHETN-XII-3.’ (US Army Engineer Research and Development Center: Vicksburg, MS) 10.21079/11681/47399
Pradhan NR, Floyd I (2021) Event based post-fire hydrological modeling of the upper Arroyo Seco watershed in southern California. Water 13(16), 2303.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Pradhan NR, Ogden FL (2010) Development of a one-parameter variable source area runoff model for ungauged basins. Advances in Water Resources 33, 572-584.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Pradhan NR, Floyd I, Brown S (2020) Satellite imagery-based SERVES soil moisture for the analysis of soil moisture initialization input scale effects on physics-based distributed watershed hydrologic modelling. Remote Sensing 12, 2108.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Rawls WJ, Brakensiek DL, Miller N (1983) Green-Ampt infiltration parameters from soils data. Journal of Hydraulic Engineering 109, 62-70.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Rengers FK, McGuire LA, Kean JW, Staley DM, Hobley DEJ (2016) Model simulations of flood and debris flow timing in steep catchments after wildfire. Water Resources Research 52(8), 6041-6061.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Rengers FK, McGuire LA, Kean JW, Staley DM, Youberg AM (2019) Progress in simplifying hydrologic model parameterization for broad applications to post‐wildfire flooding and debris‐flow hazards. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 44(15), 3078-3092.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Rengers FK, McGuire LA, Oakley NS, Kean JW, Staley DM, Tang H (2020) Landslides after wildfire: initiation, magnitude, and mobility. Landslides 17(11), 2631-2641.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Robichaud PR (2000) Fire effects on infiltration rates after prescribed fire in Northern Rocky Mountain forests, USA. Journal of Hydrology 231–232, 220-229.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Robinne FN, Bladon KD, Miller C, Parisien MA, Mathieu J, Flannigan MD (2018) A spatial evaluation of global wildfire–water risks to human and natural systems. Science of the Total Environment 610–611, 1193-1206.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |
Santi PM, Rengers FK (2020) Wildfire and Landscape Change. In ‘Reference module in earth systems and environmental sciences’. (Ed. JF Shroder) pp. 765–797. (Academic Press) 10.1016/B978-0-12-818234-5.00017-1
Schmidt KM, Hanshaw MN, Howle JF, Kean JW, Staley DM, Stock JD, Bawden GW (2011) Hydrologic conditions and terrestrial laser scanning of post-fire debris flows in the San Gabriel Mountains, CA, U.S.A. Italian Journal of Engineering Geology and Environment 583-593.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Shakesby RA, Doerr SH (2006) Wildfire as a hydrological and geomorphological agent. Earth-Science Reviews 74, 269-307.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Thomas MA, Rengers FK, Kean JW, McGuire LA, Staley DM, Barnhart KR, Ebel BA (2021) Post-wildfire soil-hydraulic recovery and the persistence of debris flow hazards. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface 126(6), e2021JF006091.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Wałęga A (2016) The importance of calibration parameters on the accuracy of the floods description in the Snyder’s model. Journal of Water and Land Development 28, 19-25.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Wang J, Stern MA, King VM, Alpers CN, Quinn NWT, Flint AL, Flint LE (2020) PFHydro: a new watershed-scale model for post-fire runoff simulation. Environmental Modelling & Software 123, 104555.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Weltz MA, Hernandez M, Nearing MA, Spaeth KE, Pierson FB, Williams CJ, AlHamdan OZ, Nouwakpo SK, Armendariz G, Haiyan W, Goodrich DC, Guertin P, Unkrich C, Polyakov V, McGwire K, Nesbit J, Frazier G, Jolley L, Stone J (2021) ‘Rangeland Hydrology and Soil Erosion Processes: A guide for Conservation Planning with the Rangeland Hydrology and Erosion Model (RHEM)’. Handbook No. 647. 80 p. (USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service)
Westerling AL, Bryant BP, Preisler HK, Holmes TP, Hidalgo HG, Das T, Shrestha SR (2011) Climate change and growth scenarios for California wildfire. Climatic Change 109, 445-463.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Western AW, Grayson RB (1998) The Tarrawarra data set: soil moisture patterns, soil characteristics, and hydrological flux measurements. Water Resources Research 34, 2765-2768.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Williams AP, Abatzoglou JT, Gershunov A, Guzman‐Morales J, Bishop DA, Balch JK, Lettenmaier DP (2019) Observed impacts of anthropogenic climate change on wildfire in California. Earth’s Future 7, 892-910.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Zema DA (2021) Post-fire management impacts on soil hydrology. Current Opinion in Environmental Science & Health 21, 100252.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |
Zhong F, Jiang S, van Dijk AIJM, Ren L, Schellekens J, Miralles DG (2022) Revisiting large-scale interception patterns constrained by a synthesis of global experimental data. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 26, 5647-5667.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |