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Molecular insights and impacts of wildfire-induced soil chemical changes

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Wildfires act as important ecosystem controls and can benefit fire-adapted biomes by promoting habitat heterogeneity, seed germination and disease control. However, the frequency of high-severity fires and the extent of total burn area have increased since the 1970s, transforming both the organic and inorganic composition of soil. In this Review, we outline the molecular-scale transformations and biogeochemical interactions of soil organic matter (SOM) and metals induced by wildfires and explore their impacts on post-fire human health and ecosystem recovery. Wildfires enhance organic matter solubility and increase the number of nitrogen-containing SOM molecules by up to 32%. Additionally, wildfires can double the concentration of toxic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soil and induce the formation of toxic metal species such as As(III) and Cr(VI) through redox reactions. In post-fire environments, pyrogenic organic matter is susceptible to microbial degradation and can interact with soil minerals to influence metal redox cycling. Moreover, post-fire products such as karrikins and PAHs promote and inhibit revegetation, respectively, influencing ecosystem recovery. Improved techniques to monitor changes in the soil and the surrounding ecosystem are needed to better understand and mitigate the negative effects of wildfires.

Key points

  • Wildfires increase water solubility and enrich nitrogen in soil organic matter while also generating toxic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

  • Wildfires can alter the oxidation state of metals, such as Cr, Hg and As, influencing their toxicity and mobility.

  • Laboratory measurements indicate that pyrogenic organic matter (PyOM) can be microbially degraded within weeks, suggesting that PyOM could have an important role in post-fire soil biogeochemical cycling.

  • The presence of growth-promoting organic molecules and growth-inhibiting metal and organic species in post-fire soils can determine the success of revegetation efforts.

  • Future work should include organic and inorganic speciation measures to better estimate human and ecosystem impacts from wildfires.

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Fig. 1: Distribution of global burn severity.
Fig. 2: Factors affecting heat generation and transfer.
Fig. 3: The effect of temperature on chemical transformations in O2-abundant and O2-limited environments.
Fig. 4: The ecosystem impacts of wildfire products.
Fig. 5: Wildfire-induced chemical changes and their impacts.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge support from the Center for Innovation in Global Health at Stanford University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine under the Planetary Health Postdoctoral Fellowship (A.M.L.), Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability under the Stanford Earth Postdoctoral Fellowship (C.C.E.A.), Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment (S.F.), the National Science Foundation under grant no. 2114868 (H.K.R., J.P.VR., T.B.) and US Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture through AFRI grant no. 2021-67019-34608 (H.K.R., J.P.VR, T.B.).

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Alandra Marie Lopez, Claudia Christine E. Avila.

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  1. Department of Earth System Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Alandra Marie Lopez, Claudia Christine E. Avila & Scott Fendorf

  2. Department of Environmental and Ocean Sciences, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA

    Claudia Christine E. Avila

  3. Department of Chemistry, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA

    Jacob P. VanderRoest & Thomas Borch

  4. Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA

    Holly K. Roth & Thomas Borch

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Lopez, A.M., Avila, C.C.E., VanderRoest, J.P. et al. Molecular insights and impacts of wildfire-induced soil chemical changes. Nat Rev Earth Environ (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-024-00548-8

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