LE 15.5: Pyrogenic Carbon

Question 1

What factors contribute to wildfires?

Answer 1

Droughts: reduced precipitation and increase in duel aridity (how dry the air is)

Topography: heterogeneity of ecosystem is characterized by community structure
- feel dominated = Sierra Nevada = lightning strikes are the main ignition source
- wind dominated = Southern CA = ignition cause is human/humid

Winds

Warmer temperatures

Question 2

What are the two main effects of these factors leading to wildfires?

Answer 2

Warm dry weathers before fire season = decrease in plant moisture = increase in ignition and spread of fire rates

hyper precipitation = increase in plants = increases ignition and spread of fire rates

Question 3

How can regional differences affect ecosystem services?

Answer 3

Sierra Nevada wildfires affects water supply and forest conservation

Question 4

How do wildfires affect terrestrial ecosystems?

Answer 4

more wildfire intensity = landscape shift = replacement with flammable grasslands

Watershed = area that drains into a body of water
- increased erosion = root systems decay and sediment enters bodies of water
- degrades water quality and organisms that live there

Question 5

How do wildfires affect aquatic ecosystems?

Answer 5

debris flow = burned and unburned organic material
- pyrogenic carbon - burned material made up of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

Combustion of biomass = toxic ash
- accumulates = bacterial blossoms from more nutrients and warmer water = hypoxia and organisms die off
- increase in temperature = aromatic rings condense into graphite sheets of carbon = harder to break down = more toxic