Wildfire smoke is often discussed as an airborne pollutant and a risk to human health. But when smoke and rain occur together, nutrients released by burned landscapes can return to the ground.
A new study led by Alexandra Ponette-González, an urban ecologist at the University of Utah and Natural History Museum of Utah, found that smoke-rain events can bring large bursts of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, three nutrients essential to life and to ecosystems across the United States.
The research brought together scientists and engineers from the U, Utah State University and the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, including Heather Holmes, associate professor in the John and Marcia Price College of Engineering’s Department of Chemical Engineering.
“Smoke plumes are a large source of gases and particles in the atmosphere,” Holmes says. “Understanding the complex interactions between smoke, atmospheric dynamics and precipitation is critical to gain insight on nutrient transport and deposition.”
The team found that although smoke-rain events were relatively infrequent, they delivered a disproportionately large share of nutrients. As wildfires become more common, these nutrient pulses could become an increasingly significant but often overlooked ecological effect of fire.
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