Biomass uptake and fire as controls on groundwater solute evolution on a southeast Australian granite: Aboriginal land management hypothesis

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dc.contributor.authorDean, JFen_AU
dc.contributor.authorWebb, JAen_AU
dc.contributor.authorJacobsen, GEen_AU
dc.contributor.authorChisari, Ren_AU
dc.contributor.authorDresel, PEen_AU
dc.date.accessioned2014-11-03T04:05:32Zen_AU
dc.date.available2014-11-03T04:05:32Zen_AU
dc.date.issued2014-01-01en_AU
dc.date.statistics2014-11-03en_AU
dc.description.abstractThe chemical composition of groundwater and surface water is often considered to be dominated by water-rock interactions, particularly weathering; however, it has been increasingly realised that plant uptake can deplete groundwater and surface water of nutrient elements. Here we show, using geochemical mass balance techniques, that water-rock interactions do not control the hydrochemistry at our study site within a granite terrain in southwest Victoria, Australia. Instead the chemical species provided by rainfall are depleted by plant biomass uptake and exported, predominantly through fire. Regular landscape burning by Aboriginal land users is hypothesized to have caused the depletion of chemical species in groundwater for at least the past 20 000 yr by accelerating the export of elements that would otherwise have been stored within the local biomass. These findings are likely to be applicable to silicate terrains throughout southeast Australia, as well as similar lithological and climatic regions elsewhere in the globe, and contrast with studies of groundwater and surface water chemistry in higher rainfall areas of the Northern Hemisphere, where water-rock interactions are the dominant hydrochemical control. © 2014, Copernicus Gesellschaft MBH.en_AU
dc.identifier.citationDean, J. F., Webb, J. A., Jacobsen, G. E., Chisari, R., & Dresel, P. E. (2014). Biomass uptake and fire as controls on groundwater solute evolution on a southeast Australian granite: Aboriginal land management hypothesis. Biogeosciences, 11(15), 4099-4114. doi:10.5194/bg-11-4099-2014en_AU
dc.identifier.govdoc5802en_AU
dc.identifier.issn1726-4170en_AU
dc.identifier.issue15en_AU
dc.identifier.journaltitleBiogeosciencesen_AU
dc.identifier.pagination4099-4114en_AU
dc.identifier.urihttp://dx.doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-4099-2014en_AU
dc.identifier.urihttp://apo.ansto.gov.au/dspace/handle/10238/5999en_AU
dc.identifier.volume11en_AU
dc.language.isoenen_AU
dc.publisherCopernicus Gesellschaft MBHen_AU
dc.subjectPleistocene epochen_AU
dc.subjectAustraliaen_AU
dc.subjectGeochemistryen_AU
dc.subjectWatershedsen_AU
dc.subjectQuaternary perioden_AU
dc.subjectPlantsen_AU
dc.titleBiomass uptake and fire as controls on groundwater solute evolution on a southeast Australian granite: Aboriginal land management hypothesisen_AU
dc.typeJournal Articleen_AU
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