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Project ID: 03-2-3-11

Year: 2003

Date Started: 07/30/2003

Date Completed: 02/02/2007

Title: Quantification of Runoff and Erosion on Semi-Arid Grasslands Following Wildfire

Project Proposal Abstract: The Ryan Fire burned over 38,000 acres of southwestern semi-arid grassland and oak woodland areas in Southeastern Arizona in April and May 2002. The Audubon Appleton-Whittell Research Ranch, an 8,000 acre refuge, is located in the center of the burned area In 1997, the USDA-ARS, Southwest Watershed Research Center had established two hillslope runoff and erosion monitoring research areas on the Audubon Research Ranch. Originally, rainfall simulator experiments to measure runoff and erosion rates were to be conducted in late 2002 or early in 2003. However, with the advent of the Ryan Fire, we had the opportunity to directly measure runoff and erosion under controlled conditions on our erosion research areas immediately following the wildfire. Rainfall simulator experiments were conducted on both sites in early June 2002: infiltration, runoff and erosion rates were measured on five (2m by 6m) rainfall simulator plots. This study will address task RFP-2003-2-Task 3. The objectives are to: 1) quantify the changes in runoff and erosion responses immediately after and for a two year period following a wildfire in a semi-arid grassland, and 2) use the data from burned and unburned rainfall simulator piots to develop semi-arid grassland parameters for Disturbed WEPP. To accomplish these objectives, we plan to continue to use rainfall simulation techniques to monitor the post-wildfire runoff and erosion rates on the two research sites on the Audubon Research Ranch. The data gained from this project will be evaluated using Disturbed WEPP. This project is the first step in developing an input parameter dataset for semi-arid grassland ecosystems for the Disturbed WEPP post fire. erosion risk management tool.

Principal Investigator: Jeffry J. Stone

Agency/Organization: ARS-Agricultural Research Service

Branch or Dept: SWRC-Southwest Watershed Research Center

Other Project Collaborators

Type	Name	Agency/Organization	Branch or Dept
Co-Principal Investigator	D. Phillip Guertin	University of Arizona-Tucson	School of Natural Resources & the Environment
Co-Principal Investigator	Ginger B. Paige	ARS-Agricultural Research Service	SWRC-Southwest Watershed Research Center
Federal Cooperator	Gerald J. Gottfried	Forest Service	Tonto National Forest

Project Locations

Consortium

Southwest

There are no project locations identified for this project.

Project Deliverables

Final Report ("Results presented in JFSP Final Reports may not have been peer-reviewed and should be interpreted as tentative until published in a peer-reviewed source.")

	ID	Type	Title
	1727	Refereed Publication	The Walnut Gulch Rainfall Simulator: A Computer-Controlled Variable Intensity Rainfall Simulator
	9498	NonRefereed Publication	Post Wildfire Runoff and Erosion Response on Grassland and Oak Woodlands in Southeastern Arizona
	9497	NonRefereed Publication	Runoff and Erosion on a Semi-Arid Grassland After a Wildfire
	8853	MS Thesis	Parameterizing the WEPP Model for Post-Fire Conditions in Semi-Arid Environments Using Rainfall Simulator (J.E. Wickre)

Supporting Documents

There are no supporting documents available for this project.

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