Wildfire ash causes oceanic marine life to grow and thrive

In 2017, Santa Barbara County suffered a devastating wildfire called the Thomas Fire that deposited a significant amount of ashes into its nearby ocean floor. What ensued was unexpected. An unexpected outcome Instead of being suffocated and dying, marine life used the fire’s byproducts as nutrients to grow and thrive.

These were the discoveries at UC Santa Barbara who chose to investigate the ashes at their disposal immediately after the fire had ceased to spread. “We planned this out in just a few weeks,” said lead author Tanika Ladd, a doctoral student at the time. “The fire broke out Dec.

4; our cruise was scheduled to go out on Dec. 17, and this clearly wasn’t in our plans for all of the cruise prep before the fire started. ” Ladd and her team gathered ash from automobile windscreens across Santa Barbara and proceeded to mix it for around 24 hours in a saltwater solution before sifting out the solid ash particles.

They used this solution to create seawater cultures infused with various amounts of the residual leachate and observed them for four days. After this short period of time, they discovered some surprising outcomes. Particulate organic carbon, a proxy for biomass, was found to be considerably higher in samples with more ash leachate indicating that plankton were multiplying and absorbing carbon from the atmosphere through photosynthesis.

These species serve as the foundation for the marine food web. Their growth therefore indicates an increase of all marine life. A further nutrient analysis showed higher levels of nitrate, nitrite, ammonium, and nitrogen commonly used for photosynthesis.

Silicic acid also increased, a substance most notably used by plankton to make their shells. Different results for different water bodies Overall, the researchers concluded that wildfires transport nutrients and energy from the land to the ocean, a fact which deserves special attention as climate change causes more of the natural disasters over time. The discovery is also in stark contrast to what happens with high levels of ash in freshwater systems.

In those environments, life is suffocated by the leachate as it collects itself in a thick layer of residue at the bottom of the water that blocks light and nutrients. Now, the researchers want to expand their work to further analyze what happens to other water bodies affected by wildfires. “Coastal ecosystems may have increased primary production during these wildfires,” Ladd said, “but we need to know what this actually means on a global scale.

” The researchers also noted that depending on what is burned and local conditions during a fire, the outcomes of their study will vary. Additional work is needed before coming to any final conclusions. The Thomas Fire was a significant wildfire that occurred in Southern California, particularly in the Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

It is noteworthy as it is considered one of the largest and most destructive wildfires in California’s history. .