Spatial and temporal controls on post-fire hydrologic recovery in Southern California watersheds

The current study investigates the spatial and temporal dynamics of post-fire vegetation and the subsequent influence on seasonal and annual hydrologic responses in chaparral-dominated watersheds. Post-fire climatology, burn severity, slope aspect, and vegetation behavior are evaluated for two basins burned during the 2003 Old Fire in the San Bernardino Mountains in Southern California. Climate and discharge data are used to evaluate seasonal and annual variability of post-fire hydrologic fluxes. Data obtained from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) are used to estimate Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) and differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR). A Savitzky–Golay filtering technique and an integrated EVI annual fraction are utilized to assess vegetation recovery under a range of potential controls. Vegetation recovery is highly variable in both watersheds and is related to slope aspect (solar and water availability), initial biomass levels, and burn severity. South and west facing slopes show higher pre-fire EVI (biomass) and significant loss of vegetation cover after fire. Vegetation in both watersheds responds to an extreme wet season during the second post-fire year, however recovery rates are not sustained. North and east aspects show the quickest biomass gain relative to pre-fire conditions by the end of the study period (WY 2010), while the west and south slopes show lower biomass recovery. High burn severity areas show the slowest recovery across all slope aspects, with these regions just approaching 90% of pre-fire biomass by the end of the seven-year post-fire period. The variable rate of vegetation recovery across the watersheds results in significant changes in annual and seasonal discharge throughout the post-fire period. Runoff ratios remain elevated in both systems and there is increased dry season flow for much of the study period, indicating that plant water consumption and flowpaths are not back to pre-fire behavior by the end of WY 2010.