Dissolved black carbon as a potential driver of surface water heating dynamics in wildfire-impacted regions: A case study from Pyramid Lake, NV, USA.

Black carbon (BC), pyrogenic residues resulting from the incomplete combustion of organics, are liberated from wildfires at high rates. Subsequent introduction to aqueous environments via atmospheric deposition or overland flow results in the formation of a dissolved fraction, called dissolved black carbon (DBC). As wildfire frequency and intensity increases along with a changing climate, it becomes imperative to understand the impact a concurrent increase in DBC load might have to aquatic ecosystems. In the atmosphere BC stimulates warming by absorbing solar radiation, and similar processes may occur with surface waters that contain DBC. In this work we investigated whether the addition of environmentally relevant levels of DBC could impact surface water heating dynamics in experimental settings. DBC was quantified at multiple locations and depths in Pyramid Lake (NV, USA) during peak fire season while two large, proximal wildfires burned. DBC was detected in Pyramid Lake water at all sampled locations at concentrations (3.6-18 ppb) significantly higher than those reported for other large inland lakes. DBC was positively correlated (R

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Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.