Diverse wildfire impacts on river flows across the globe

Nature

Forest fires can significantly impact the hydrological regime of river basins, affecting short-term flood propensity and long-term water resource availability until vegetation is reestablished. While basin-level studies have extensively investigated these impacts, regional and global-scale assessments remain limited. Here we use a comprehensive global dataset of river discharge observations to systematically assess the hydrological response to wildfires for a range of hydrologically homogenous world regions and biomes.   Click here to read the story.