Quantification of hillslope runoff and erosion processes before and after wildfire in a wet Eucalyptus forest

Abstract

An experimental program was initiated following an intense wildfire in 2003 in NE Victoria Australia, to quantify an expected large increase in hillslope erosion by rill and interrill processes from a steep, wet, Eucalyptus forest. Water repellence, soil water content, infiltration capacity, infiltration-excess runoff generation, interrill erodibility, and rill erodibility were measured periodically for 3 years. Rill erodibility on 27° slopes increased immediately following the fire by a factor of 540 times, but decreased exponentially to very low background levels 2 years after the fire. Despite this increased erodibility, rill erosion was uncommon in the catchment, because soil saturated h..