Scientists analyzed coastal water quality in the months following a major Southern California wildfire. Their results were eye-opening.
Scientists analyzed coastal water quality in the months following a major Southern California wildfire. Their results were eye-opening.
The November 2018 Woolsey Fire in Southern California’s Los Angeles and Ventura counties left more than a nearly 100,000-acre burn scar behind: It also left the adjacent coastal waters with unusually high levels of fecal bacteria and sediment that remained for months.
For a new study, published in Nature Scientific Reports, scientists combined satellite imagery, precipitation data, and water quality reports to assess two standard parameters for coastal water quality after the fire: the presence of fecal indicator bacteria and the turbidity, or cloudiness, of the water.
Fecal indicator bacteria originate from the gastrointestinal tracts of humans and other warm-blooded animals. While they’re not harmful, they indicate the presence of other bacteria and pathogens found in feces that can be. Turbidity has other implications: Cloudy, murky water results in less sunlight reaching marine life – like kelp and phytoplankton – that rely on it to survive.
When it rains, runoff typically carries some bacteria and sediment from the land to coastal waters. But the huge spike in both following the fire was anything but typical.
Read more at: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
The 2018 Woolsey Fire in California burned nearly 100,000 acres in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. This image was taken on Nov. 9, 2018. (Photo Credit: Forest Service, USDA courtesy of Peter Buschmann)
