Wildfire and extreme rainfall reduce soil carbon and nitrogen pools in a semiarid shrubland ecosystem

This study took advantage of a wildfire, natural variation in rainfall,
and a controlled rain-shelter experiment to examine the interactions of
fire and rain on soil structure and organic matter storage in a coastal
sage scrub ecosystem in southern California. The study includes data from
2022-2024. Passive rain shelters were installed in the fall of 2022, and
were paired with nearby control plots. The years preceding the study were
drier than average, while 2023 was an exceptionally high rainfall year,
and 2024 was close to the long-term average. The study includes two areas
that burned in a January 2021 wildfire and an adjacent unburned area. For
most variables, there are at total of 36 datapoints for each year (3 areas
x 2 rainfall treatments x 6 replicates). The datasets include carbon and
nitrogen associated with different soil physical fractions, including
water stable aggregates, particulate organic matter, mineral associated
organic matter, and soluble pools. Additionally, soil water content was
measured at three depths at 15 minute intervals in each plot. This project
was funded by NSF grant 2154746.