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The increasing severity and frequency of wildfires in forested watersheds pose significant challenges to water quality management. This study examines the impacts of the 2022 Hermit's Peak-Calf Canyon gigafire, the largest wildfire in New Mexico's history. The wildfire burned over 1,382 km², affecting a key watershed that supplies drinking water to Las Vegas, NM. We conducted a longitudinal assessment of post-fire water quality dynamics across a 170 km fluvial network, analyzing flow, water quality parameters, nutrient and metal concentrations, and mobilization patterns. We found that post-fire nutrient concentrations exceeded pre-fire medians by up to two orders of magnitude. Our analyses revealed solute-specific transport patterns that are difficult to predict with static watershed- or fire-specific characteristics (e.g., burned area and percent severities). ${\text{NH}}_4^{+}$, ${\text{PO}}_3^{-}$, and ${\text{NO}}_2^{-}$were closely and positively associated with discharge and turbidity near the burn perimeter, while ${\text{NO}}_3^{-}$and TON exhibited strong mobilization trends ~170 km downstream. In contrast to nutrients, calcium, magnesium, and manganese levels showed no significant pre- vs. post-fire shifts, while concentrations of trace metals like Cr³⁺, Pb²⁺, Zn²⁺, and Sr²⁺surpassed background levels and public health thresholds. Our findings emphasize the significant propagation of wildfire disturbances over hundreds of kilometers and suggest the need for integrated watershed management strategies, including the management of large-scale flood control mechanisms to mitigate the far-reaching impacts of water quality disturbances post-fire. 

The TIERRAS project is an open-access platform that compiles a database of more than 400 tracer injection experiments in rivers and streams, sourced from previously published studies and reports. It also includes interactive features that allow users to explore, download, and contribute new data. The goal is to provide a centralized and accessible repository for researchers, environmental managers, and anyone interested in water quality, hydrological modeling, and stream solute dynamics.   These experiments were collected from various sources, including published studies, unpublished data, and technical reports from different authors. The original data were in diverse formats and units; all data were curated and standardized to a consistent format and to the Imperial (U.S. customary) units.   Visit TIERRAS at https://www.tierras.org/ Cite: Rodríguez, L., Tunby, P., Abusang, A., Tartakovsky, A., Carroll, K., Ginn, T., & González-Pinzón, R. (2025). TIERRAS Tracer Injection Experiments in RiveRs And Streams (2.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15794259 

Anthropogenic and natural disasters (e.g., wildfires, oil spills, mine spills, sewage treatment facilities) cause water quality disturbances in fluvial networks. These disturbances are highly unpredictable in space-time, with the potential to propagate through multiple stream orders and impact human and environmental health over days to years. Due to challenges in monitoring and studying these events, we need methods to strategize the deployment of rapid response research teams on demand. Rapid response research has the potential to close the gap in available water quality data and process understanding through time-sensitive data collection efforts. This manuscript presents a protocol that can guide researchers in preparing for and researching water quality disturbance events. We tested and refined the protocol by assessing the longitudinal propagation of water quality disturbances from the 2022 Hermit's Peak—Calf Canyon, NM, USA, the largest in the state's recorded history. Our rapid response research allowed us to collect high-resolution water quality data with semi-continuous sensors and synoptic grab sampling. The data collected have been used for traditional peer-reviewed publications and pragmatically to inform water utilities, restoration, and outreach programs.