Articles | Volume 22, issue 17
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-4491-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-4491-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
10 Sep 2025
Research article |
| 10 Sep 2025
| 10 Sep 2025
Burn severity and vegetation type control phosphorus concentration, molecular composition, and mobilization
Morgan E. Barnes
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA
J. Alan Roebuck Jr.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Sequim, WA, USA
Samantha Grieger
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Sequim, WA, USA
Paul J. Aronstein
Environmental Systems, University of California – Merced, Merced, CA, USA
Vanessa A. Garayburu-Caruso
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA
Kathleen Munson
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Sequim, WA, USA
Robert P. Young
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA
present address: Washington River Protection Solutions, P.O. Box 850 MSIN M0-01, Richland, WA 99354, USA
Kevin D. Bladon
College of Forestry, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
John D. Bailey
College of Forestry, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
Emily B. Graham
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA
School of Biological Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA
Lupita Renteria
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA
Peggy A. O'Day
Environmental Systems, University of California – Merced, Merced, CA, USA
Timothy D. Scheibe
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA
Allison N. Myers-Pigg
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Sequim, WA, USA
Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, USA
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Maggi M. Laan, Stephanie G. Fulton, Vanessa A. Garayburu-Caruso, Morgan E. Barnes, Mikayla A. Borton, Xingyuan Chen, Yuliya Farris, Brieanne Forbes, Amy E. Goldman, Samantha Grieger, Robert O. Hall Jr., Matthew H. Kaufman, Xinming Lin, Erin L. M. Zionce, Sophia A. McKever, Allison Myers-Pigg, Opal Otenburg, Aaron C. Pelly, Huiying Ren, Lupita Renteria, Timothy D. Scheibe, Kyongho Son, Jerry Tagestad, Joshua M. Torgeson, and James C. Stegen
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This research examines oxygen use in rivers, which is central to the carbon cycle and water quality. The study focused on an environmentally diverse river basin in the western United States and found that oxygen use in river water was very slow and influenced by factors like water temperature and concentrations of nutrients and carbon in the water. Results suggest that in the study system, most of the oxygen use occurs via mechanisms directly or indirectly associated with riverbed sediments.
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James C. Stegen, Vanessa A. Garayburu-Caruso, Robert E. Danczak, Amy E. Goldman, Lupita Renteria, Joshua M. Torgeson, and Jacqueline Hager
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James C. Stegen, Sarah J. Fansler, Malak M. Tfaily, Vanessa A. Garayburu-Caruso, Amy E. Goldman, Robert E. Danczak, Rosalie K. Chu, Lupita Renteria, Jerry Tagestad, and Jason Toyoda
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Rivers are vital to Earth, and in rivers, organic matter (OM) is an energy source for microbes that make greenhouse gas and remove contaminants. Predicting Earth’s future requires understanding how and why river OM is transformed. Our results help meet this need. We found that the processes influencing OM transformations diverge between river water and riverbed sediments. This can be used to build new models for predicting the future of rivers and, in turn, the Earth system.
Yunxiang Chen, Jie Bao, Yilin Fang, William A. Perkins, Huiying Ren, Xuehang Song, Zhuoran Duan, Zhangshuan Hou, Xiaoliang He, and Timothy D. Scheibe
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Climate change affects river discharge variations that alter streamflow. By integrating multi-type survey data with a computational fluid dynamics tool, OpenFOAM, we show a workflow that enables accurate and efficient streamflow modeling at 30 km and 5-year scales. The model accuracy for water stage and depth average velocity is −16–9 cm and 0.71–0.83 in terms of mean error and correlation coefficients. This accuracy indicates the model's reliability for evaluating climate impact on rivers.
Aditi Sengupta, Sarah J. Fansler, Rosalie K. Chu, Robert E. Danczak, Vanessa A. Garayburu-Caruso, Lupita Renteria, Hyun-Seob Song, Jason Toyoda, Jacqueline Hager, and James C. Stegen
Biogeosciences, 18, 4773–4789, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-4773-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-4773-2021, 2021
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Conceptual models link microbes with the environment but are untested. We test a recent model using riverbed sediments. We exposed sediments to disturbances, going dry and becoming wet again. As the length of dry conditions got longer, there was a sudden shift in the ecology of microbes, chemistry of organic matter, and rates of microbial metabolism. We propose a new model based on feedbacks initiated by disturbance that cascade across biological, chemical, and functional aspects of the system.
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Short summary
Wildfires impact nutrient cycles on land and in water. We used burning experiments to understand the types of phosphorous (P), an essential nutrient, that might be released to the environment after different types of fires. We found the amount of P moving through the environment post-fire is dependent on the type of vegetation and degree of burning, which may influence when and where this material is processed or stored.
Wildfires impact nutrient cycles on land and in water. We used burning experiments to understand...
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