Download (PDF 1.35 MB): https://research.fs.usda.gov/download/treesearch/61499.pdf
Abstract
Intense wildfires effectively remove vegetation, degrade watershed condition, and result in altered stream hydrographs and increased sediment input to streams. Case histories from five headwater streams in Arizona and New Mexico show effects of wildfire on aquatic habitats, fishes, and their food supply may be marked and long-lasting. Recent (1989-90) wildfires effectively extirpated two populations of brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), one of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and the type locality population of the endangered Gila trout, (O. gilae). Aquatic macroinvertebrates densities declined to zero within 1 month after the fire, and diversities dropped 25 to 70% a year later. Trout populations re-introduced 1 year after the fire declined 85 to 97% in a two-year period. Highly variable streamflow and fluctuations in Gila trout populations in one stream in southwestern New Mexico suggest the effects of wildfire on stream habitats and biota may be long lasting. Forest Service management and research must continue to cooperate in examining the effects of not only wildfire but prescribed fire on aquatic habitats and biota within southwestern riparian areas.
Parent Publication
Citation
Rinne, John N.; Neary, Daniel G. 1996. Fire effects on aquatic habitats and biota In Madrean-type ecosystems: Southwestern United States. In: Ffolliott, Peter F.; DeBano, Leonard F.; Baker, Malchus B.; Gottfried, Gerald J.; Solis-Garza, Gilberta; Edminster, Carleton B.; Neary, Daniel G.; Allen, Larry S.; Hamre, R. H., tech coordinators. 1996. Effects of fire on Madrean Province Ecosystems: A symposium proceedings; March 11-15, 1996; Tucson, AZ. Gen. Tech. Rep. RM-GTR-289. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station. p. 135-146.
