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Study region: This study used intact soil cores collected at the Boulder Creek Critical Zone Observatory near Boulder, Colorado, USA to explore fire impacts on soil properties. Study focus: Three soil scenarios were considered: unburned control soils, and low- and high-temperature burned soils. We explored simulated fire impacts on field-saturated hydraulic conductivity, dry bulk density, total organic carbon, and infiltration processes during rainfall simulations. New hydrological insights for the region: Soils burned to high temperatures became more homogeneous with depth with respect to total organic carbon and bulk density, suggesting reductions in near-surface porosity. Organic matter decreased significantly with increasing soil temperature. Tension infiltration experiments suggested a decrease in infiltration rates from unburned to low-temperature burned soils, and an increase in infiltration rates in high-temperature burned soils. Non-parametric statistical tests showed that field-saturated hydraulic conductivity similarly decreased from unburned to low-temperature burned soils, and then increased with high-temperature burned soils. We interpret these changes result from the combustion of surface and near-surface organic materials, enabling water to infiltrate directly into soil instead of being stored in the litter and duff layer at the surface. Together, these results indicate that fire-induced changes in soil properties from low temperatures were not as drastic as high temperatures, but that reductions in surface soil water repellency in high temperatures may increase infiltration relative to low temperatures.

In the Colorado Front Range, forested catchments near the rain-snow transition are likely to experience changes in snowmelt delivery and subsurface water transport with climate warming and associated shifts in precipitation patterns. Snowpack dynamics are strongly affected by aspect: Lodgepole pine forested north-facing slopes develop a seasonal snowpack, whereas Ponderosa pine-dotted south-facing slopes experience intermittent snow accumulation throughout winter and spring. We tested the degree to which these contrasting water input patterns cause different near-surface hydrologic response on north-facing and south-facing hillslopes during the snowmelt period. During spring snowmelt, we applied lithium bromide (LiBr) tracer to instrumented plots along a north-south catchment transect. Bromide broke through immediately at 10- and 30-cm depths on the north-facing slope and was transported out of soil waters within 40 days. On the south-facing slope, Br− was transported to significant depths only during spring storms and remained above the detection limit throughout the study. Modelling of unsaturated zone hydrologic response using Hydrus-1D corroborated these aspect-driven differences in subsurface transport. Our multiple lines of evidence suggest that north-facing slopes are dominated by connected flow through the soil matrix, whereas south-facing slope soils experience brief periods of rapid vertical transport following snowmelt events and are drier overall than north-facing slopes. These differences in hydrologic response were largely a function of energy-driven differences in water supply, emphasizing the importance of aspect and climate forcing when considering contributions of water and solutes to streamflow in catchments near the snow line. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The architecture of the critical zone includes the distribution, thickness, and contacts of various types of slope deposits and weathering products such as saprolite and weathered bedrock resting on solid bedrock. A quantitative analysis of architecture is necessary for many model-driven approaches used by pedologic, geomorphic, hydrologic or biologic studies. We have used electrical resistivity tomography, a well-established geophysical technique causing minimum surficial disturbance, to portray the subsurface electrical resistivity differences at three study sites (Green Lakes Valley; Gordon Gulch; Betasso) at the Boulder Creek Critical Zone Observatory (BcCZO). Possible limitations of the technique are discussed. Interpretation of the specific resistivity values using natural outcrops, pits, roadcuts and drilling data as ground truth information allows us to image the critical zone architecture of each site. Green Lakes Valley (3700 MASL), a glacially eroded alpine basin, shows a rather simple, split configuration with coarse blockfields and sediments, partly containing permafrost above bedrock. The critical zone in Gordon Gulch (2650 MASL), a montane basin with rolling hills, and Betasso (1925 MASL), a lower montane basin with v-shaped valleys, is more variable due to a complex Quaternary geomorphic history. Boundaries between overlying stratified slope deposits and saprolite were identified at mean depths of 3.0 ± 2.2 m and 4.1 ± 3.6 m in the respective sites. The boundary between saprolite and weathered bedrock is deeper in Betasso at 5.8 ± 3.7 m, compared with 4.3 ± 3.0 m in Gordon Gulch. In general, the data are consistent with results from seismic studies, but electrical resistivity tomography documents a 0.5-1.5 m shallower critical zone above the weathered bedrock on average. Additionally, we document high lateral variability, which results from the weathering and sedimentation history and seems to be a consistent aspect of critical zone architecture within the BcCZO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]