High-intensity fires are increasing in frequency, extent, and severity across wildland–urban interfaces (WUI), urban areas, and industrial sites such as battery energy storage systems (BESS). Unlike biomass-dominated wildfires, these events involve heterogeneous fuels (built materials, industrial compounds), generating complex contaminant mixtures including metals and metalloids, PAHs, and halogenated compounds with distinct reactivity and persistence.

This session examines the generation, dispersal, transformation, and long-term fate of fire-derived contaminants across the Earth system. We emphasize linkages among atmospheric transport and deposition, soil and sediment interactions, and hydrologic redistribution via surface water and groundwater. Contributions on pulsed contamination events are encouraged, as these episodic inputs challenge monitoring frameworks and often produce nonlinear responses.

Topics include source apportionment, transport pathways, post-depositional processes, bioavailability, tracer approaches, monitoring strategies, and modeling of contaminant dispersal and fate across spatial and temporal scales.

• A - Atmospheric Sciences
• GH - GeoHealth
• H - Hydrology