WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS
Monitoring after the 2020 CZU fires found levoglucosan concentrations peaking in the earliest post-fire flows and then declining, while black-carbon transport tracked discharge more strongly and increased in relative importance with time since fire. The two tracers therefore represented different mobilization pathways after the same disturbance.
WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ
Post-fire water-quality monitoring can miss process if all pyrogenic carbon is treated as one pool. Sampling timing and hydrologic context determine which fire signal is visible.
CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY
The study covers five small coastal California watersheds and two carbon tracers, not the complete watershed carbon budget. Transport behavior may differ with geology, burn severity, storm regime and channel structure.
SOURCE
Biogeochemistry — primary field study
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