Impact of fire on global land surface air temperature and energy budget for the 20th century due to changes within ecosystems

Li, Fang; Lawrence, David M.; Bond-Lamberty, Ben

doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aa6685

Title: Impact of fire on global land surface air temperature and energy budget for the 20th century due to changes within ecosystems

Journal Article · Mon Apr 03 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Environmental Research Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa6685· OSTI ID:1349698

Li, Fang; Lawrence, David M.; Bond-Lamberty, Ben

Fire is a global phenomenon and tightly interacts with the biosphere and climate. This study provides the first quantitative assessment and understanding of fire’s influence on the global annual land surface air temperature and energy budget through its impact on terrestrial ecosystems. Fire impacts are quantified by comparing fire-on and fire-off simulations with the Community Earth System Model (CESM). Results show that, for the 20th century average, fire-induced changes in terrestrial ecosystems significantly increase global land annual mean surface air temperature by 0.18 °C, decrease surface net radiation and latent heat flux by 1.08 W m ^-2 and 0.99 W m^-2, respectively, and have limited influence on sensible heat flux ( 0.11 W m^-2) and ground heat flux (þ0.02 W m^-2). Fire impacts are most clearly seen in the tropical savannas. Our analyses suggest that fire increases surface air temperature predominantly by reducing latent heat flux, mainly due to fire-induced damage to the vegetation canopy, and decreases net radiation primarily because fire-induced surface warming significantly increases upward surface longwave radiation. This study provides an integrated estimate of fire and induced changes in ecosystems, climate, and energy budget at a global scale, and emphasizes the importance of a consistent and integrated understanding of fire effects.

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Research Organization:: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States); Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); State Key Project for Basic Research Program of China; China Scholarship Council

Contributing Organization:: National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States)

Grant/Contract Number:: FC03-97ER62402; 2010CB951801; 41475099

OSTI ID:: 1349698

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1358487; OSTI ID: 1361670

Report Number(s):: PNNL-SA-120341

Journal Information:: Environmental Research Letters, Journal Name: Environmental Research Letters Vol. 12 Journal Issue: 4; ISSN 1748-9326

Publisher:: IOP PublishingCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United Kingdom

Language:: English

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Cited by: 45 works

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Title: Impact of fire on global land surface air temperature and energy budget for the 20th century due to changes within ecosystems

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