Impacts of wildfire severity on hydraulic conductivity in forest, woodland, and grassland soils (Chapter 7)

Abstract

Forest, woodland, and grassland watersheds throughout the world are major sources of high quality water for human use because of the nature of these soils to infiltrate, store, and transmit most precipitation instead of quickly routing it to surface runoff. This characteristic of these wildland soils is due to normally high infiltration rates, porosities, and hydraulic conductivities generated by biological and physical processes (Neary et al. 2009). Many of these ecosystems are subject to prescribed fires and wildfires that affect not only aboveground natural resources but also the soil and hydrologic systems (Ice et al. 2004).

Citation

Neary, Daniel G. 2011. Impacts of wildfire severity on hydraulic conductivity in forest, woodland, and grassland soils (Chapter 7). In: Elango, Lakshmanan, ed. Hydraulic Conductivity - Issues, Determination and Applications. New York, NY: InTech. p. 123-142.