As the frequency of wildfires has increased, so have pollutants in the waters from burned watersheds, say researchers in a review paper that highlights the need for more research in the area.

"Much less studied are the effects of fire burning not only forests and grasslands but also houses, vehicles and other human-made material," said Stephen LeDuc of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment. "There have only been a few studies of pollutants mobilized from these types of fires."

LeDuc is a coauthor of the new paper, published today in Water Resources Research, AGU's journal for original research on the movement and management of Earth's water.

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