Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts blog

Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts seeks your highest impact research for our upcoming Themed Issue dedicated to Wildfires – Influence on air, soil and water.

Guest Edited by Alex Chow (Clemson University, USA) and Lu Hu (University of Montana, USA)

Ash and smoke from wildfire and prescribed fires can contaminate soil, air, and water, impacting millions of people worldwide every year. The burn area, frequency, and severity are predicted to continue increasing under a future warmer climate. In addition to the dangers of heat from an active fire, fire smoke emits hundreds if not thousands of air toxins, posing significant threats to public health and wildlife. Ash and fire retardants negatively affect soil and water quality, threatening aquatic biotics, agricultural operation, and municipal water supplies downstream. Long-term changes in vegetation composition and land cover can also alter nutrient cycles, ecosystem function, and even climate.

Despite its significant impacts on the environment, there are still many knowledge gaps on the environmental chemistry of wildfires – from essential and trace elements, heavy metals, nutrients, organic compounds, to pyrogenic and black carbon. Furthermore, studies connecting these chemicals among air, soil, and water are extremely limited. This wildfires-themed issue is to encourage the communication and understanding from atmospheric, soil and water chemistry. Laboratory, field, numerical model, and remote sensing approaches to study the processes and impact of wildfires and prescribed fire on either soil, water, air, climate, or the interfaces among them are welcome.

Submissions due: 31st March 2022

Submit your work now: mc.manuscriptcentral.com/em

Upon submission, please add ‘Invited for the Wildfires themed issue’ in step 4 of the submission process. All manuscripts will undergo initial assessment and peer review as per the usual standards of the journal.