A risk-benefit context for assessing wildfire effects on water quality and biotic integrity
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Wildfires can have devasting impacts on human infrastructure, watersheds, and water quality, impacting aquatic ecosystem endpoints valued by humans and regulated by federal agencies such as the USEPA. But wildfires can also have beneficial effects on aquatic ecosystems. Assessing the net risk of wildfire to aquatic ecosystem endpoints will therefore require consideration of both adverse and positive effects. Doing so requires a holistic perspective that considers the multiple pathways through which wildfire modifies watershed processes regulating the physical, chemical, and biological attributes of receiving waters. Additionally, this requires the explicit consideration of spatial and temporal variability in these processes and their companion responses. Furthermore, distinguishing between beneficial and detrimental effects of wildfire will require methods to assess both risks and benefits in a way useful to stakeholders and managers charged with making decisions about pre- and post-fire response to wildfire risks. Here, we present a research framework for assessing spatial variability in relative risk. Examples illustrate how the relative risks/benefits of wildfire to aquatic ecosystem endpoints will vary in response to watershed and catchment attributes that modify, enhance, or ameliorate wildfire effects. This approach will help identify areas likely to require differing levels and types of pre- and post-fire intervention.