Fire and land use affect the amount and timing of nutrient organic matter and sediment delivery from watersheds to the ocean. Drought and fire followed by rain causes large fluxes of terrestrial nutrients to the coastal ocean. During storms, runoff plumes containing high concentrations of nutrients remain close to the coast, but are advected offshore and quickly diluted once the storms pass, thereby reducing the contribution of land-derived nutrients to the productivity of coastal ecosystems.
For Further Reading:
Romero, L et al. 2016. Characterizing storm water dispersion and dilution from small coastal streams. Journal of Geophysical Research. doi: 10.1002/2015JC011323
Aguilera, R and Melack, JM. 2018. Relationships among nutrient and sediment fluxes, hydrological variability, fire, and land cover in coastal California catchments. Journal of Geophysical Research. doi: 10.1029/2017JG004119
