Stream water geochemistry of boron and boron isotopes in a small boreal catchment affected by a major forest fire

Previous research [1] has suggested that the boron (B) isotope system has a potential to be used as a tracer for detecting historic wood fire events. It was hypothesized that highly elevated B concentrations in sediments of a lake, accompanied by an enrichment of 10B, were a result of an urban wood fire event in the 19th century. The δ11B decrease in these sediments exceeded 9 ., coinciding with a peak in the B concentration.To evaluate this hypothesis, seasonal isotopic pattern of boron (B) was investigated during spring and summer 2007 in a small stream draining a boreal forest area which was severely burnt in a major forest fire in the summer of 2006. Dissolved (< 0.22 µm) boron concentrations of the burnt area were significantly higher compared to a non-burnt reference stream, while 11B/10B ratios were significantly lower. Dissolved δ11B differences between the reference and the burnt area stream were found to be -9 to -22 .. We interpret the elevated B concentrations, accompanied by enrichment of 10B, in the burnt stream as wood and plant ash leaching of biogenic B from the burnt forest by surface run-off. Our results suggest that a boreal forest fire event significantly increases the leached amount of isotopically lighter B in the dissolved phase of stream run-off.[1] Peltola & Åström (2006), Appl. Geochem. 21 (2006) 941-948.