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Data supporting 'Linking fire-induced evapotranspiration shifts to streamflow magnitude and timing in the western United States'

Metadata Updated: July 6, 2024

The impact of wildfire on water availability is a critical issue in the western United States. Because actual evapotranspiration (ETa) constitutes the largest loss in the terrestrial water budget, it has been suggested that fire-induced ETa reduction is a primary driver of elevated post-fire discharge. Ten gaged watersheds with burns exceeding 5% of their total contributing drainage area were selected from California, Oregon, Montana, Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado. Continuous daily stream gage data were compiled, and 30-meter ETa estimates were calculated with the Operational Simplified Surface Energy Balance (SSEBop) model. Fire-induced ETa shifts were quantified with statistical tests that compared pre and post-fire monthly ETa in burned and unburned pixels; the dampening effect of scale was also evaluated by repeating tests on all pixels from the entire basin. As streamflow data are point measurements that aggregate a large spatial area, additional statistical methods were required to isolate the effect of fire from climate on baseflow and runoff. Key findings include a) significant fire-induced ETa reductions were only distinguishable in basin-scale monthly datasets when at least 73% of the basin burned, b) the effect of wildfire disturbance on streamflow magnitude was seasonably variable, c) streamflow was modified in basins with as little as 6% burned drainage area; however, shifts only persisted beyond the fifth post-fire year where more than three-quarters of the basin was fire-impacted, and d) surplus water from ETa reduction was sufficient to account for boosted fire-induced streamflow. Where fire-induced streamflow increases were not significantly correlated with ETa anomaly, other fire-impacted landscape processes may have contributed to modified runoff generation and routing. Where fire reduced ETa but streamflow shifts were not detected, compensatory ETa pathways may have consumed the excess water before it reached the gage. Findings suggest that water providers with small source-water collection areas have higher relative risk for fire-induced hydromodification than providers with larger or more diversified supply portfolios. Results also illustrate the tendency of overarching climate signals to mask or artificially boost the apparent effect of landscape disturbance on streamflow at the basin outlet.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date July 19, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date July 19, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
@Id http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/ceef606ec979351db48c21b852d37eb3
Identifier USGS:628e58f9d34ef70cdba3feda
Data Last Modified 20230609
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://datainventory.doi.gov/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 17c4af9b-0cfd-4a94-a3b2-08210f6559ad
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -122.9765,33.6838,-104.5673,48.0965
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 0af9dde979bfb784f2bc7bc23390bb8d76e84d4df6c5952c67a645862bd817b2
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -122.9765, 33.6838, -122.9765, 48.0965, -104.5673, 48.0965, -104.5673, 33.6838, -122.9765, 33.6838}

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