Total carbon loss from surface soils, non-vascular plants, and lichens during the
Donnelly Flats fire was estimated in two ways by Neff et al. (5). The first involved
directly measuring the change in total soil organic matter (SOM) between 8 control plots
and 6 burn plots. A second approach involved using Al (a non-volatile element conserved
during the fire) to estimate the fuel loads and loss within individual burned plots, via a
comparison with the Al to C ratio of SOM in the control plots. Carbon transferred from
aboveground vegetation to the soil during and immediately after fire is accounted for in
these soil measurements. These two approaches yielded slightly different estimates: 1071
± 537 g C m-2 and 1421 ± 267 g C m-2, respectively. Here we used the average of these
two approaches 1246 ± 600 g C m-2.