A collaborative network to understand how wildland fire emissions influence lake ecosystems
| Authors: | Facundo Scordo, Sudeep Chandra, Janice Brahney, Derek Mallia, Jaron Adkins, Tirtha Banerjee, Katherine B. Benedict, Majid Bavandpour, Jessica R. Corman, Hamed Ebrahimian, Mary Jade Farruggia, Maria Frediani, Erin Hanan, Scott N. Higgins, Adam K. Kochanski, Leda Kobziar, Neil Lareau, Max Moritz, Jeff Nielson, Isabella A. Oleksy, Dani Or, Katrina Eyvindson, Alexandra G. Ponette‐González, Steve Sadro, Adrianne Smits, Dante A. Capone, Angela Wang, Andrew J. Whelton, Shawn P. Urbanski |
| Year: | 2026 |
| Type: | Scientific Journal |
| Station: | Rocky Mountain Research Station |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1002/lob.70043 |
| Source: | Limnology and Oceanography Bulletin |
Abstract
Wildland fires are increasing in frequency, size, and severity globally (Cunningham et al. 2024), releasing large quantities of a complex mixture of airborne particles that can be transported thousands of kilometers through the atmosphere. Fire emissions include smoke aerosols (particles ≤10 μm), pyrometeors (medium-sized particles or agglomerates of smaller particles 10–2000 μm), and firebrands (large burning embers >2000 μm). Lakes are increasingly exposed to emissions from wildland fires (Farruggia et al. 2024; Smits et al. 2024), with observations indicating that these emissions alter water chemistry and biology, nutrient availability, light penetration, and thermal conditions (Fig. 1). These effects occur through two main pathways that are theorized to vary with distance from the fire. Near the fire (<100 km), large pyrometeors can deposit directly into lakes, delivering particulate material, nutrients, contaminants, and microorganisms (Ardyna et al. 2022; Hickenbottom et al. 2023; Bonfantine et al. 2024) while also influencing light conditions (Scordo et al. 2021, 2022). At greater distances (>100 km), smaller smoke aerosol particles remain suspended in the atmosphere and primarily affect lakes by altering solar radiation (Fig. 1b). Although these particles can enter waterbodies through wet deposition, their total mass is much lower than that of pyrometeors.