Biomass burning a driver for global change
- NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA (United States)
- Science Applications International Corp., Hampton, VA (United States)
Recent research has identified another biospheric process that has instantaneous and longer term effects on the production of atmospheric gases: biomass burning. Biomass burning includes the burning of the world`s vegetation-forests, savannas. and agricultural lands, to clear the land and change its use. Only in the past decade have researchers realized the important contributions of biomass burning to the global budgets of many radiatively and chemically active gases - carbon dioxide, methane, nitric oxide, tropospheric ozone, methyl chloride - and elemental carbon particulates. International field experiments and satellite data are yielding a clearer understanding of this important global source of atmospheric gases and particulates. It is seen that in addition to being a significant instantaneous global source of atmospheric gases and particulates, burning enhances the biogenic emissions of nitric oxide and nitrous oxide from the world`s soils. Biomass burning affects the reflectivity and emissivity of the Earth`s surface as well as the hydrological cycle by changing rates of land evaporation and water runoff. For these reasons, it appears that biomass burning is a significant driver of global change. 20 refs., 4 figs., 2 tabs.
- OSTI ID:
- 28684
- Journal Information:
- Environmental Science and Technology, Vol. 29, Issue 3; Other Information: PBD: Mar 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Long-term records of fire occurrence and their implications for gaseous and particulate emissions to the atmosphere
The magnitude and persistence of soil NO, N{sub 2}O, CH{sub 4}, and CO{sub 2} fluxes from burned tropical savanna in Brazil