Effect of Wildfire on Water Quality of Closed Inland Freshwater Systems in Udaipur, Rajasthan, India
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55863/ijees.2025.0867Keywords:
Wildfire, Tropical lakes, Forested catchments, Water quality, nutrientsAbstract
Wildfires are becoming more frequent all over the world each year. Altered climate and land use patterns are the key causes of unnatural wildfires. They affect terrestrial as well as nearby freshwater ecosystems. After wildfires and consequent removal of forest vegetation, increased water flow and soil erosion amplify the transfer of nutrients, pollutants, and sediment to the freshwater bodies. Water quality of closed lake ecosystems is significantly altered in such circumstances. The present study is an attempt to explore the responses of wildfire on water quality of two inland lakes of Southern Rajasthan, one charred with severe wildfire while another with no recent wildfire incidence. For this purpose, two lakes were seasonally evaluated in terms of water quality responses after the wildfire. They are closed inland freshwater systems with no direct inputs of freshwater other than rainfall. Both the lakes have some resemblance in their sizes, for being less disturbed by direct human activities and having forested catchments, although the topographical and hydrological conditions vary to some extent. Although post-monsoon water quality varies with pre-monsoon conditions due to sediment and mineral transport to lakes with rainwater runoff, fire enhances this impact as vegetation cover is burnt and removed. We observed a range of parameters like pH, TDS, EC, total hardness, alkalinity, nitrate, phosphate, DO, BOD, and DOC in both of the lakes seasonally. The water quality responses were found to have a substantial influence of wildfire in Lake Baghdara. The degree of divergence of impact between the two lakes may be attributed to the presence and severity of wildfire in the catchment of Baghdara Lake. The present investigation will help in analysing the impact of forest fires on closed inland freshwater tropical lakes with forested catchments.
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