Forest fire induced impacts on phosphorus, nitrogen, and chlorophyll a concentrations in boreal subarctic lakes of northern Alberta
The biogeochemistry of 10 headwater lakes in burnt peatland-conifer catchments and 14 in unburnt catchments was evaluated throughout a summer 2 years following forest fire in a boreal subarctic region of northern Alberta. Cation exchange within burnt catchments resulted in proton flux and a 9% reduc...
Published in: | Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences |
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Main Authors: | , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Canadian Science Publishing
2000
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/f00-124 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/f00-124 |
Summary: | The biogeochemistry of 10 headwater lakes in burnt peatland-conifer catchments and 14 in unburnt catchments was evaluated throughout a summer 2 years following forest fire in a boreal subarctic region of northern Alberta. Cation exchange within burnt catchments resulted in proton flux and a 9% reduction in mean pH. Lakes in burnt catchments contained more than twofold higher (P << 0.01) mean concentrations of total, total dissolved, and soluble reactive phosphorus, 1.5-fold higher (P << 0.01) concentrations of dissolved organic carbon, and more than 1.2-fold higher (P < 0.05) concentrations of total and total dissolved nitrogen, nitrate + nitrite, and ammonium compared with reference lakes. Total phosphorus concentration explained 86% of the variance in reference lake chlorophyll concentration but was not related to chlorophyll concentration in burnt lakes. Analysis of chlorophyll - total phosphorus residuals suggested that algae in burn-impacted lakes were light limited. With the addition of five lakes burnt between 1961 and 1985, time since disturbance and percent disturbance combined explained 74% of the variance in total phosphorus among burnt lakes. Fire caused increased flux of materials to the study lakes with slow recovery over decades. |
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