Consequences of the 1988 wildfires on the water quality of Yellowstone National Park's major lakes
Lathrop RG. 1993. Consequences of the 1988 wildfires on the water quality of Yellowstone National Park's major lakes. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America. 74(2):323
Episodic fire disturbance, by mobilizing nutrients in upland forests and increasing nutrient input to downstream aquatic ecosystems, is potentially an important factor in the coupling of terrestrial and aquatic biogeochemical cycles. The greater Yellowstone fires of 1988 present a dramatic natural experiment on the impacts of fire on terrestrial/aquatic interactions on a landscape scale. Analysis of long-term lake water quality records (1976-1991) for Yellowstone's major oligotrophic lakes have not shown any discernable shift in lake water quality or trophic state. Though their watersheds were heavily burned, Yellowstone's major lakes (Yellowstone, Lewis, Heart and Shoshone Lake) may be large enough to dilute increased inputs and escape any major impact from the 1988 fires. Any increased influx of nutrients due to the fires was probably comparable to the natural year-to-year variation in supply due to atmospheric deposition.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Lathrop, Richard
- Units
- YELL
- Keywords
- Aquatic Sciences, Chemistry, FIRE, Lakes and Ponds, Water Quality