Measuring Heavy Metal and Metalloid Accumulation in the Upper Gallinas Watershed Following the Hermit’s Peak-Calf Canyon Wildfire

Keywords: Hydrogeochemistry, Fire Regimes, Stream Ecology, Water Quality, Ecological Disturbance
Abstract Type: Poster Abstract

Abstract

In 2022, the Hermit’s Peak-Calf Canyon wildfire burned over 340,000 acres of land in northern New Mexico, making it the largest fire in the state’s recorded history. The Upper Gallinas watershed was severely impacted by monsoon rains following the Hermit’s Peak-Calf Canyon (HPCC) wildfire. Due to the severity of the HPCC fire, as well as the amount of ash and sediment that was washed into the Upper Gallinas watershed in subsequent flooding events, it is likely that bioavailable heavy metal(loid) concentrations in its streams and tributaries have significantly increased. In my research I plan to collect water, sediment, and macroinvertebrate samples from burned streams within the Watershed. I will then run heavy metal analysis on these samples via inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to determine the concentrations of arsenic (As), aluminum (Al), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), and Zinc (Zn) in the respective samples. Heavy metal testing after wildfires is critically important due to the detrimental impact they have on both stream health and human health. Understanding the effects that fires will have on watersheds and ecosystems is vital for securing safe drinking water for New Mexicans, especially when multi-decadal drought has become the new norm in the age of global-scale anthropogenic climate change.