Multi‐Year Tracing of Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of Post‐Fire Aeolian Sediment Transport Using Rare Earth Elements Provide Insights Into Grassland Management

Author:

Burger William J.1,Van Pelt R. Scott2,Grandstaff David E.1ORCID,Wang Guan3ORCID,Sankey Temuulen T.4ORCID,Li Junran5ORCID,Sankey Joel B.6ORCID,Ravi Sujith1ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Department of Earth & Environmental Science Temple University Philadelphia PA USA

2. Wind Erosion and Water Conservation Research USDA‐ARS Big Spring TX USA

3. School of Soil and Water Conservation Beijing Forestry University Beijing China

4. School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems Northern Arizona University Flagstaff AZ USA

5. Department of Geography The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong China

6. U.S. Geological Survey Southwest Biological Science Center Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center Flagstaff AZ USA

Abstract

AbstractAeolian sediment transport occurs as a function of, and with feedback to ecosystem changes and disturbances. Many desert grasslands are undergoing rapid changes in vegetation, including the encroachment of woody plants, which alters fire regimes and in turn can change the spatial and temporal patterns of aeolian sediment transport. We investigated aeolian sediment transport and spatial distribution of sediment in the surface soil for 7 years following a prescribed fire using a multiple rare earth element (REE) tracer‐based approach in a shrub‐encroached desert grassland in the northern Chihuahuan desert. Results indicate that even though the aeolian horizontal sediment mass flux increased approximately three‐fold in the first windy season in the burned areas compared to control areas, there were no significant differences after three windy seasons. The soil surface of bare microsites was the major contributor of aeolian sediments in unburned areas (87%), while the shrub microsites contributed the least (<2%) during the observation period. However, after the prescribed fire, the contribution of aeolian sediments from shrub microsites increased considerably (∼40%), indicating post‐fire microsite‐scale sediment redistribution. The findings of this study, which is the first to use multiple REE tracers for multi‐year analysis of the spatial and temporal dynamics of aeolian sediment transport, illustrate how disturbance by prescribed fire can influence aeolian processes and alters dryland soil geomorphology in which distinct soils develop over time at very fine spatial scales of individual plants.

Funder

National Science Foundation

Publisher

American Geophysical Union (AGU)

Subject

Earth-Surface Processes,Geophysics

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