Wildfire impacts along the coastal aquatic continuum: Addressing the estuarine knowledge gap

Context: Predicted increases in wildfires, driven by climate change, land-use change, and current fire management, may significantly affect aquatic systems, including estuarine health and productivity. Aims: The aim of this review is to compile and critically analyse data on wildfire impacts to estuarine systems. Methods: Relevant literature was reviewed through multiple databases (Wiley Online Library, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and JSTOR) using targeted search terms. Key results: Wildfires could lead to a wide range of impacts to coastal aquatic systems, including changes in nutrients and primary productivity, carbon cycling, and metal contamination. Conclusions: Based on the literature, it is likely that wildfire impacts to estuaries will be site-specific and vary over the short and long-term. The variability is due to a wide range of factors, including but not limited to estuarine mixing, stratification, and residence times, catchment and estuary geomorphology, and size and severity of the wildfires. Implications: While impacts to freshwater aquatic systems have been explored, there is limited research focused on impacts to estuaries. Estuaries are intrinsically unique and therefore long-term monitoring is required to assess wildfire impacts.