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Fire in Organic-Rich Wetland Sediments: Inorganic Responses in Porewater

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Abstract

Declining rainfall and extraction of groundwater increase the vulnerability of wetland sediments to ignition and combustion. This study investigated the existence of a unique hydrochemical porewater signal associated with organic-rich sulfidic sediments that have been overheated, dried, cracked, and burnt, by the passage of fire. Porewater was collected from wetland sediments with recent fire histories, as well as a wetland that had not suffered any type of burn in recent times (i.e. 5+ years). The results show that fire brought about elevated base cation concentrations in addition to substantial increase in oxidation of sulfidic wetland sediments, the generation of acidic porewaters, and the concomitant mobilisation of metal species. These changes were episodic in nature, varying with seasonal fluctuations of groundwater and sediment hydration and saturation, and persistent for at least several years. The seasonally episodic nature of acid generation following fire leads to the depletion of the acid-neutralising capacity of the sediments (potentially faster than would otherwise have occurred as a result of drought-induced acidification events alone) and ultimately exhausts the buffering capacity of the sediments.

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Acknowledgements

The work described here is one component of a larger project examining the occurrence of fire within wetland sediments and its effects on water quality, funded by the Department of Fire and Emergency Services Western Australia (DFES, formerly Fire and Emergency Services Authority of Western Australia), Edith Cowan University Postgraduate Research Scholarship and the Centre for Ecosystem Management, Edith Cowan University. The authors would like to acknowledge the role of Mr. Ralph Smith, Environmental Manager DFES in the establishment of this project. The manuscript was improved by the comments and suggestions of an anonymous reviewer.

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  1. Centre for Ecosystem Management, Edith Cowan University, 270 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup, Western Australia, 6027, Australia

    David Blake, Mary C. Boyce, William D. Stock & Pierre Horwitz

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  1. David Blake
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  2. Mary C. Boyce
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Contributions

Dave Blake: conceptualisation; investigation; methodology; data curation; formal analysis; writing—original draft, review and editing; funding acquisition. Mary Boyce: investigation; methodology; supervision; writing—review and editing. William Stock: investigation; supervision; writing—review and editing. Pierre Horwitz: conceptualization; investigation; writing-original draft, review and editing; resources; funding acquisition; supervision

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Correspondence to David Blake.

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Blake, D., Boyce, M.C., Stock, W.D. et al. Fire in Organic-Rich Wetland Sediments: Inorganic Responses in Porewater. Water Air Soil Pollut 232, 101 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-021-05013-6

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