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Abstract Surficial soil movement data from 80 sediment traps located within five forested catchments in the Colorado Front Range suggest that sediment flux rates after forest fires are elevated by as much as three orders of magnitude compared to rates typical of undisturbed forested areas. Sediment traps installed within a recently burned basin recorded (minimum) annual rates of surficial flux equivalent to 5.4–8.0 kg m-1 of slope contour. Data from the four burned areas of different ages further suggest that sediment flux declines quite rapidly after forest fire because of reduced soil water repellency and the tendency for the surficial debris cascade to become detachment-limited. This reduction notwithstanding, sediment movement rates are still an order of magnitude higher at burned sites after four years than the areally weighted average flux at undisturbed forest locations. A comparison with available data from the relevant geomorphic subsystems of the area strongly suggests that forest fire disturbances may account for a large portion of the long-term sediment yield from Front Range hillslopes.
Morris et al. (Mon,) studied this question.