Mechanisms Underlying Watershed Recovery from Drought and Wildfire

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Presenter

Daniella Rempe, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences
Jackson School of Geosciences
The University of Texas at Austin

Description

Following severe droughts, streamflow and groundwater recharge may not recover as quickly as rainfall does. Wildfires can cause shifts in water quantity and quality that can persist for years to decades. Predicting the impacts of these disturbances is critical to management of water resources and ecosystems, yet our understanding remains incomplete. Because the root-zone of trees commonly extends deep into bedrock, the mechanisms driving these disturbance legacies can be governed by this deep bedrock root-zone, where empirical observations remain exceedingly rare. This talk highlights recent long-term observations of moisture, carbon, and solute dynamics in the deep root-zone and their implications for mediating watershed responses to disturbance.