Comparing modeled soil temperature and moisture dynamics during prescribed fires, slash-pile burns and wildfires

Peter R. Robichaud; William J. Massman; Anthony Bova; Antonio Girona-García; Andoni Alfaro-Leranoz; Nancy E. Gibson

doi:10.1071/WF22082

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

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Comparing modeled soil temperature and moisture dynamics during prescribed fires, slash-pile burns and wildfires

Peter R. Robichaud

^A ^* , William J. Massman ^B , Anthony Bova ^C ^D , Antonio Girona-García

^E , Andoni Alfaro-Leranoz

^F and Nancy E. Gibson ^A

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, 1221 South Main Street, Moscow, ID 83843, USA. Email: nancy.gibson@usda.gov

^B US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fort Collins, CO, USA. Email: william.massman@usda.gov

^C US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Seattle, WA, USA.

^D Formerly with CPP Inc., Wind Engineering Consultants, Fort Collins, CO, USA. Email: anthony.bova@usda.gov

^E Biodiversity Research Institute (IMIB), CSIC–University of Oviedo–Principality of Asturias, Mieres, Spain. Email: a.girona@csic.es

^F GEOFOREST, Departamento de Ciencias Agrarias y del Medio Natural, Escuela Politécnica Superior de Huesca, Instituto de Investigación en Ciencias Ambientales (IUCA), Universidad de Zaragoza, 22071 Huesca, Spain. Email: a.alfaroler@unizar.es

^* Correspondence to: peter.robichaud@usda.gov

International Journal of Wildland Fire 34, WF22082 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF22082

Submitted: 8 July 2022 Accepted: 11 March 2025 Published: 27 March 2025

© 2025 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of IAWF. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC)

Abstract

Background

Wildfires, prescribed fires and slash-pile burns are disturbances that occur in many terrestrial ecosystems. Such fires produce variable surface heat fluxes causing a spectrum of effects on soil, such as seed mortality, nutrient loss, changes in microbial activity and water repellency. Accurately modeling soil heating is vital to predicting these second-order fire effects. The process-based Massman HMV (Heat–Moisture–Vapor) model incorporates soil water evaporation, heat transport and water vapor movement, and captures the observed rapid evaporation of soil moisture.

Aims

Improve the Massman HMV model and compare it with Campbell soil heating model using four independent soil temperature datasets collected during burning.

Methods

The models were evaluated using similar BFD curves against observed temperature and soil moisture using standard statistical methods.

Key results

Results suggest reasonable agreement between the Massman HMV model and field soil temperature data under various burn scenarios and it was consistently more accurate than the Campbell model.

Conclusions

The Massman HMV model improved soil heating predictions and provided soil moisture predictions.

Implications

The Massman HMV model was incorporated in the First Order Fire Effects Model (FOFEM ver. 6.7) with a user-friendly interface that allows managers to assess the heating impacts of fire on soil temperature and moisture.

Keywords: duff, fire intensity, First Order Fire Effects Model, FOFEM, Heat–Moisture–Vapor (HMV) model, moisture dynamics, soil heating, soil temperature, surface fire, validation.

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