Wildfire and Groundwater

摘要

VERY LITTLE IS KNOWN ABOUT THE EFFECTS of fireon groundwater. We need to know more. Recently, agroup of us have been collecting evidence of the effectof fire on the subsurface environment. Not by samplingwater from wells, but byanalyzing water percolatinginto caves. Our researchshows that fire doesinfluence subsurface waterquality, with soluble ashproducts are transportedunderground. But we don’tyet know whether they canreach the aquifer.