Contribution of forest fire ashes to weathering fluxes in the Moole Hole experimental watershed (South India)

The Moole Hole experimental watershed (4.3 km2; South India) is located near the Western Ghâts within a climatic transition zone (1100 mm/y rainfall). The chemical fluxes exported to the outlet through flash floods are strongly influenced by the variability of the SW monsoon intensity and occasionally by dissolution of ashes from forest fires, like in 2004. The aim of the present work was to quantify the chemical fluxes originating from ashes at the stream outlet and their temporal evolution. For this, we characterised the chemical signatures of the local ashes and their temporal evolution by using an experimental approach (420-min batch dissolution). Then, the quantification was performed by an inverse modelling.