- Impact of Forest Fires on Soil Organic Matter
- Structural Fire Emissions of the Wildland Urban Interface
Wildfire activity in the western U.S. has increased in frequency and severity throughout the past decades. After fires, precipitation events transport burned organic matter through watersheds to downstream rivers and streams. This can alter the composition of organic matter in aquatic ecosystems, as well as water-saturated ecosystems like wetlands. Specifically, the abundances of metabolites (small organic molecules like amino acids and saccharides) can change. These metabolites are a food source for microbes and they also impact the global carbon cycle. Here, we study how potential transport of burned organic matter may impact aquatic and water-saturated ecosystems to determine how altered metabolomes could impact local microbes and vegetation, as well as the carbon mass balance. We conduct research across a wide range of scales (i.e. from controlled laboratory burns and greenhouse studies to full-scale field work) and assess changes in organic matter using a fleet of instrumentation such as gas and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.
Check out our publications on this topic!
Molecular insights and impacts of wildfire-induced soil chemical changes
Fire impacts on the soil metabolome and organic matter biodegradability
Wildfire-dependent changes in soil microbiome diversity and function
Wildfire impact on soil microbiome life history traits and roles in ecosystem carbon cycling
Structural Fires at the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI): Emission Factors Inventories and Implications is a joint project between the CSU Mechanical Engineering Department and the Borch Lab. Our goal is to create a database of anthropogenic material emissions commonly found at the WUI interface, which we will use advanced analytical chemistry techniques to characterize and classify. Essentially, we ask, “What emissions are released from burning a couch? A Tesla? A motorhome?”
Wildfire regimes are changing, resulting in more WUI fires and the loss of homes and businesses. Understanding these sources of novel atmospheric pollution emissions is a critical knowledge gap. We hypothesize that these contaminants play a sizable role in atmospheric pollution from WUI wildfire burning, which can have adverse human health effects.
Our group uses advanced analytical chemistry techniques to approach, characterize and classify these (sometimes novel) chemical compounds. Some of the instruments that we use include IC, HR-GC/HR-MS, Triple Quad MS, HPLC, GC-MS, and 21 T FTICR-MS, in targeted and non-targeted analyses. With this data, we will publish databases of chemicals from emissions to better track, understand, and prevent atmospheric pollution and inform the environment and public health.
Check out our publications on this topic!
Emissions from Structure Fires: Overview of BHASMA and Results for CO2 and Select Pollutants by Fuel, Combustion Mode, and Scale
More publications coming soon!