Determining the charcoal in mineral soil after a wildfire Student: Lauren Orona Mentor: H. Shipley, PhD

Purpose & Hypothesis To determine the percent of mineral soil in highly burned and lightly burned areas in the Valles Caldera National Preserve. The first hypothesis was the percent of charcoal will be higher in the highly burned areas then in the lower burned areas. The second hypothesis was that the higher the soil surface the more percent of charcoal will be then the deeper in the soil sample.

Method For the first part a group of samples were taken from blocked off areas, which were sectioned off into two (severally burned and slightly burned) Then taken into four subsection, From there they cut out ten centimeters deep into the ground and that is how we got another five subsections (two centimeters deep) Each soil sample is then measures into fifty ml containers for the next part of the experiment which are then weight to one gram. **example of what the soil samples after it is packed

method Following that process the one gram soil samples are taken to have the chemical liquids added (a hydrogen peroxide and nitric acid mixture) It is then taken to a digester that heats up all the materials for a six hour period Then the damp soil samples are take to a air vacuum to be completely dried from the excess liquid that may have been left. From that point the soil sample on a filter paper is then put into an oven that is left for over night to make sure that new liquid particulars form on the dried samples The last part is the dried soil to the furnus for a about four hours, after that time the soil samples are put back into the oven to cool over night. After that cooled soil samples are taken out to be weighted for the final calculation of the charcoal percentage.

data **Sample of what the data collection looked like

data **The result of the data that was collected. **The numbers that inside are the percent's of charcoal for each a selected amount of samples.

results Based on the results that I was able to collect I came to the conclusion that: The longer that the soil samples were exposed to the wildfire the larger the percent of charcoal that the soil samples will have. The second is that the deeper that the soil samples get the less percent of charcoal that the samples contain.

References & Acknowledgements Ball, P. N. et al. "Wildfire And Charcoal Enhance Nitrification And Ammonium- Oxidizing Bacterial Abundance In Dry Montane Forest Soils". Journal of Environment Quality 39.4 (2010): 1243. Web. Kurth, V.J., M.D. MacKenzie, and T.H. DeLuca. "Estimating Charcoal Content In Forest Mineral Soils". Geoderma 137.1-2 (2006): 135-139. Web. Standard Test Methods For Moisture, Ash, And Organic Matter Of Peat And Other Organic Soils. West Conshohocken, Pa.: ASTM International, 2010. Print. This research was partially supported by the USDA and the MORESE/MSEIP Program.