Contributions of wildland fire to terrestrial ecosystem carbon dynamics in North America from 1990 to 2012
Abstract
Abstract Burn area and the frequency of extreme fire events have been increasing during recent decades in North America, and this trend is expected to continue over the 21st century. While many aspects of the North American carbon budget have been intensively studied, the net contribution of fire disturbance to the overall net carbon flux at the continental scale remains uncertain. Based on national scale, spatially explicit and long‐term fire data, along with the improved model parameterization in a process‐based ecosystem model, we simulated the impact of fire disturbance on both direct carbon emissions and net terrestrial ecosystem carbon balance in North America. Fire‐caused direct carbon emissions were 106.55 ± 15.98 Tg C/yr during 1990–2012; however, the net ecosystem carbon balance associated with fire was −26.09 ± 5.22 Tg C/yr, indicating that most of the emitted carbon was resequestered by the terrestrial ecosystem. Direct carbon emissions showed an increase in Alaska and Canada during 1990–2012 as compared to prior periods due to more extreme fire events, resulting in a large carbon source from these two regions. Among biomes, the largest carbon source was found to be from the boreal forest, primarily due to large reductions in soil organic matter during, and with slower recovery after, fire events. Themore »
- Authors:
-
[1];
[2];
- Environmental Sciences Division Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge Tennessee USA
- School of Forest Resources University of Maine Orono Maine USA
- Alaska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, U.S. Geological Survey University of Alaska Fairbanks Fairbanks Alaska USA
- Publication Date:
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1402248
- Grant/Contract Number:
- 3ERKP818
- Resource Type:
- Publisher's Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Global Biogeochemical Cycles
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Global Biogeochemical Cycles Journal Volume: 31 Journal Issue: 5; Journal ID: ISSN 0886-6236
- Publisher:
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Citation Formats
Chen, Guangsheng, Hayes, Daniel J., and David McGuire, A. Contributions of wildland fire to terrestrial ecosystem carbon dynamics in North America from 1990 to 2012. United States: N. p., 2017.
Web. doi:10.1002/2016GB005548.
Chen, Guangsheng, Hayes, Daniel J., & David McGuire, A. Contributions of wildland fire to terrestrial ecosystem carbon dynamics in North America from 1990 to 2012. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GB005548
Chen, Guangsheng, Hayes, Daniel J., and David McGuire, A. Sat .
"Contributions of wildland fire to terrestrial ecosystem carbon dynamics in North America from 1990 to 2012". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GB005548.
@article{osti_1402248,
title = {Contributions of wildland fire to terrestrial ecosystem carbon dynamics in North America from 1990 to 2012},
author = {Chen, Guangsheng and Hayes, Daniel J. and David McGuire, A.},
abstractNote = {Abstract Burn area and the frequency of extreme fire events have been increasing during recent decades in North America, and this trend is expected to continue over the 21st century. While many aspects of the North American carbon budget have been intensively studied, the net contribution of fire disturbance to the overall net carbon flux at the continental scale remains uncertain. Based on national scale, spatially explicit and long‐term fire data, along with the improved model parameterization in a process‐based ecosystem model, we simulated the impact of fire disturbance on both direct carbon emissions and net terrestrial ecosystem carbon balance in North America. Fire‐caused direct carbon emissions were 106.55 ± 15.98 Tg C/yr during 1990–2012; however, the net ecosystem carbon balance associated with fire was −26.09 ± 5.22 Tg C/yr, indicating that most of the emitted carbon was resequestered by the terrestrial ecosystem. Direct carbon emissions showed an increase in Alaska and Canada during 1990–2012 as compared to prior periods due to more extreme fire events, resulting in a large carbon source from these two regions. Among biomes, the largest carbon source was found to be from the boreal forest, primarily due to large reductions in soil organic matter during, and with slower recovery after, fire events. The interactions between fire and environmental factors reduced the fire‐caused ecosystem carbon source. Fire disturbance only caused a weak carbon source as compared to the best estimate terrestrial carbon sink in North America owing to the long‐term legacy effects of historical burn area coupled with fast ecosystem recovery during 1990–2012.},
doi = {10.1002/2016GB005548},
journal = {Global Biogeochemical Cycles},
number = 5,
volume = 31,
place = {United States},
year = {Sat May 27 00:00:00 EDT 2017},
month = {Sat May 27 00:00:00 EDT 2017}
}
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GB005548
https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GB005548
Other availability
Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Cited by: 21 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science
Web of Science
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.
Works referenced in this record:
Interannual variation in biomass burning and fire seasonality derived from geostationary satellite data across the contiguous United States from 1995 to 2011: VARIATION IN FIRE SEASONALITY
journal, June 2014
- Zhang, Xiaoyang; Kondragunta, Shobha; Roy, David P.
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, Vol. 119, Issue 6
Biomass and carbon accumulation in a fire chronosequence of a seasonally dry tropical forest: BIOMASS AND CARBON IN SEASONALLY DRY FOREST
journal, September 2007
- Vargas, Rodrigo; Allen, Michael F.; Allen, Edith B.
- Global Change Biology, Vol. 14, Issue 1
Uncertainty in estimating carbon emissions from boreal forest fires
journal, January 2004
- French, Nancy H. F.
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 109, Issue D14
A 70-Year Retrospective Analysis of Carbon Fluxes in the Canadian Forest Sector
journal, May 1999
- Kurz, Werner A.; Apps, Michael J.
- Ecological Applications, Vol. 9, Issue 2
The role of historical fire disturbance in the carbon dynamics of the pan-boreal region: A process-based analysis
journal, January 2007
- Balshi, M. S.; McGuire, A. D.; Zhuang, Q.
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 112, Issue G2
Wildfire in Russian Boreal Forests—Potential Impacts of Fire Regime Characteristics on Emissions and Global Carbon Balance Estimates
journal, December 1997
- Conard, Susan G.; A. Ivanova, Galina
- Environmental Pollution, Vol. 98, Issue 3
Controls on carbon consumption during Alaskan wildland fires
journal, November 2011
- Kasischke, Eric S.; Hoy, Elizabeth E.
- Global Change Biology, Vol. 18, Issue 2
CBM-CFS3: A model of carbon-dynamics in forestry and land-use change implementing IPCC standards
journal, February 2009
- Kurz, W. A.; Dymond, C. C.; White, T. M.
- Ecological Modelling, Vol. 220, Issue 4
Importance of carbon-nitrogen interactions and ozone on ecosystem hydrology during the 21st century
journal, January 2009
- Felzer, Benjamin S.; Cronin, Timothy W.; Melillo, Jerry M.
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 114, Issue G1
A growing importance of large fires in conterminous United States during 1984–2012
journal, December 2015
- Yang, Jia; Tian, Hanqin; Tao, Bo
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, Vol. 120, Issue 12
Biomass burning emissions estimated with a global fire assimilation system based on observed fire radiative power
journal, January 2012
- Kaiser, J. W.; Heil, A.; Andreae, M. O.
- Biogeosciences, Vol. 9, Issue 1
Observations and assessment of forest carbon dynamics following disturbance in North America: FOREST CARBON AFTER DISTURBANCE
journal, June 2012
- Goetz, S. J.; Bond-Lamberty, B.; Law, B. E.
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, Vol. 117, Issue G2
An inventory-based analysis of Canada's managed forest carbon dynamics, 1990 to 2008: CANADA'S MANAGED FOREST C DYNAMICS
journal, January 2011
- Stinson, G.; Kurz, W. A.; Smyth, C. E.
- Global Change Biology, Vol. 17, Issue 6
Modeling soil thermal and carbon dynamics of a fire chronosequence in interior Alaska
journal, December 2002
- Zhuang, Q.; McGuire, A. D.; O'Neill, K. P.
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 108, Issue D1
Patterns of NPP, GPP, respiration, and NEP during boreal forest succession: CARBON DYNAMICS DURING BOREAL SUCCESSION
journal, January 2011
- Goulden, M. L.; Mcmillan, A. M. S.; Winston, G. C.
- Global Change Biology, Vol. 17, Issue 2
Assessing the effects of fire disturbance on ecosystems: a scientific agenda for research and management.
report, January 1999
- Schmoldt, Daniel L.; Peterson, David L.; Keane, Robert E.
- USDA
Net primary production and net ecosystem production of a boreal black spruce wildfire chronosequence
journal, April 2004
- Bond-Lamberty, Ben; Wang, Chuankuan; Gower, Stith T.
- Global Change Biology, Vol. 10, Issue 4
Century‐scale patterns and trends of global pyrogenic carbon emissions and fire influences on terrestrial carbon balance
journal, September 2015
- Yang, Jia; Tian, Hanqin; Tao, Bo
- Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Vol. 29, Issue 9
Analysis of the patterns of large fires in the boreal forest region of Alaska
journal, January 2002
- Kasischke, Eric S.; Williams, David; Barry, Donald
- International Journal of Wildland Fire, Vol. 11, Issue 2
Boreal forest CO 2 exchange and evapotranspiration predicted by nine ecosystem process models: Intermodel comparisons and relationships to field measurements
journal, December 2001
- Amthor, J. S.; Chen, J. M.; Clein, J. S.
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 106, Issue D24
Modeling the effects of fire severity and climate warming on active layer thickness and soil carbon storage of black spruce forests across the landscape in interior Alaska
journal, October 2013
- Genet, H.; McGuire, A. D.; Barrett, K.
- Environmental Research Letters, Vol. 8, Issue 4
Global fire emissions and the contribution of deforestation, savanna, forest, agricultural, and peat fires (1997–2009)
journal, January 2010
- van der Werf, G. R.; Randerson, J. T.; Giglio, L.
- Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol. 10, Issue 23
Ensemble projections of wildfire activity and carbonaceous aerosol concentrations over the western United States in the mid-21st century
journal, October 2013
- Yue, Xu; Mickley, Loretta J.; Logan, Jennifer A.
- Atmospheric Environment, Vol. 77
Modeling the effects of snowpack on heterotrophic respiration across northern temperate and high latitude regions: Comparison with measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide in high latitudes
journal, January 2000
- McGuire, A. D.; Melillo, J. M.; Randerson, J. T.
- Biogeochemistry, Vol. 48, Issue 1, p. 91-114
Vulnerability of carbon storage in North American boreal forests to wildfires during the 21st century
journal, June 2009
- Balshi, M. S.; Mcguire, A. D.; Duffy, P.
- Global Change Biology, Vol. 15, Issue 6
Reconciling estimates of the contemporary North American carbon balance among terrestrial biosphere models, atmospheric inversions, and a new approach for estimating net ecosystem exchange from inventory-based data
journal, January 2012
- Hayes, Daniel J.; Turner, David P.; Stinson, Graham
- Global Change Biology, Vol. 18, Issue 4
Short- and Long-term Effects of Fire on Carbon in US Dry Temperate Forest Systems
journal, February 2011
- Hurteau, Matthew D.; Brooks, Matthew L.
- BioScience, Vol. 61, Issue 2
Changes in vegetation in northern Alaska under scenarios of climate change, 2003–2100: implications for climate feedbacks
journal, June 2009
- Euskirchen, E. S.; McGuire, A. D.; Chapin, F. S.
- Ecological Applications, Vol. 19, Issue 4
Annual wildland fire emissions (WFEIS v0.5) for Conterminous US and Alaska, 2001-2013
collection, January 2016
- French, N. H. F.; Mckenzie, D.; Erickson, T.
- ORNL Distributed Active Archive Center
Risk of natural disturbances makes future contribution of Canada's forests to the global carbon cycle highly uncertain
journal, January 2008
- Kurz, W. A.; Stinson, G.; Rampley, G. J.
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 105, Issue 5
Model comparisons for estimating carbon emissions from North American wildland fire
journal, January 2011
- French, Nancy H. F.; de Groot, William J.; Jenkins, Liza K.
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 116
Climate change and wildfire in Canada
journal, January 1991
- Flannigan, M. D.; Wagner, C. E. Van
- Canadian Journal of Forest Research, Vol. 21, Issue 1
Recent changes in the fire regime across the North American boreal region—Spatial and temporal patterns of burning across Canada and Alaska
journal, January 2006
- Kasischke, Eric S.; Turetsky, Merritt R.
- Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 33, Issue 9
Forest Fire Impacts on Carbon Uptake, Storage, and Emission: The Role of Burn Severity in the Eastern Cascades, Oregon
journal, October 2009
- Meigs, Garrett W.; Donato, Daniel C.; Campbell, John L.
- Ecosystems, Vol. 12, Issue 8
The extent of the North American boreal zone
journal, December 2009
- Brandt, J. P.
- Environmental Reviews, Vol. 17, Issue NA
Influence of tree species on continental differences in boreal fires and climate feedbacks
journal, February 2015
- Rogers, Brendan M.; Soja, Amber J.; Goulden, Michael L.
- Nature Geoscience, Vol. 8, Issue 3
Fire and the boreal forest: the process and the response
book, January 1992
- Johnson, Edward A.
- Fire and Vegetation Dynamics
Simulating the impacts of disturbances on forest carbon cycling in North America: Processes, data, models, and challenges
journal, January 2011
- Liu, Shuguang; Bond-Lamberty, Ben; Hicke, Jeffrey A.
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 116
Recent acceleration of biomass burning and carbon losses in Alaskan forests and peatlands
journal, December 2010
- Turetsky, Merritt R.; Kane, Evan S.; Harden, Jennifer W.
- Nature Geoscience, Vol. 4, Issue 1
A dynamic organic soil biogeochemical model for simulating the effects of wildfire on soil environmental conditions and carbon dynamics of black spruce forests
journal, January 2010
- Yi, Shuhua; McGuire, A. David; Kasischke, Eric
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 115, Issue G4
The North American Carbon Program Multi-scale Synthesis and Terrestrial Model Intercomparison Project – Part 2: Environmental driver data
journal, January 2014
- Wei, Y.; Liu, S.; Huntzinger, D. N.
- Geoscientific Model Development, Vol. 7, Issue 6
Assessment of boreal forest historical C dynamics in the Yukon River Basin: relative roles of warming and fire regime change
journal, December 2012
- Yuan, F. -M.; Yi, S. -H.; McGuire, A. D.
- Ecological Applications, Vol. 22, Issue 8
Global wildland fire emissions from 1960 to 2000: GLOBAL FIRE EMISSIONS 1960-2000
journal, April 2008
- Schultz, Martin G.; Heil, Angelika; Hoelzemann, Judith J.
- Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Vol. 22, Issue 2
Carbon Storage on Landscapes with Stand-replacing Fires
journal, January 2006
- Kashian, Daniel M.; Romme, William H.; Tinker, Daniel B.
- BioScience, Vol. 56, Issue 7
North American carbon dioxide sources and sinks: magnitude, attribution, and uncertainty
journal, December 2012
- King, Anthony W.; Hayes, Daniel J.; Huntzinger, Deborah N.
- Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, Vol. 10, Issue 10
Development of a global land cover characteristics database and IGBP DISCover from 1 km AVHRR data
journal, January 2000
- Loveland, T. R.; Reed, B. C.; Brown, J. F.
- International Journal of Remote Sensing, Vol. 21, Issue 6-7
North America's net terrestrial CO 2 exchange with the atmosphere 1990–2009
journal, January 2015
- King, A. W.; Andres, R. J.; Davis, K. J.
- Biogeosciences, Vol. 12, Issue 2
The Fire INventory from NCAR (FINN): a high resolution global model to estimate the emissions from open burning
journal, January 2011
- Wiedinmyer, C.; Akagi, S. K.; Yokelson, R. J.
- Geoscientific Model Development, Vol. 4, Issue 3
The role of fire in the boreal carbon budget
journal, December 2000
- Harden, J. W.; Trumbore, S. E.; Stocks, B. J.
- Global Change Biology, Vol. 6, Issue S1
Modelling carbon responses of tundra ecosystems to historical and projected climate: sensitivity of pan-Arctic carbon storage to temporal and spatial variation in climate
journal, December 2000
- Mcguire, A. D.; Clein, J. S.; Melillo, J. M.
- Global Change Biology, Vol. 6, Issue S1
Global estimates of biomass burning emissions based on satellite imagery for the year 2000
journal, January 2004
- Ito, Akinori
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 109, Issue D14
Could increased boreal forest ecosystem productivity offset carbon losses from increased disturbances?
journal, November 2007
- Kurz, Werner A.; Stinson, Graham; Rampley, Greg
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Vol. 363, Issue 1501
Modeling carbon–nutrient interactions during the early recovery of tundra after fire
journal, September 2015
- Jiang, Yueyang; Rastetter, Edward B.; Rocha, Adrian V.
- Ecological Applications, Vol. 25, Issue 6
Estimation of Total Yearly CO 2 Emissions by Wildfires in Mexico during the Period 1999–2010
journal, January 2014
- Bautista Vicente, Flor; Carbajal, Noel; Pineda Martínez, Luis Felipe
- Advances in Meteorology, Vol. 2014
Contribution of anthropogenic and natural sources to atmospheric methane variability
journal, September 2006
- Bousquet, P.; Ciais, P.; Miller, J. B.
- Nature, Vol. 443, Issue 7110
Interactions between soil thermal and hydrological dynamics in the response of Alaska ecosystems to fire disturbance: SOIL THERMAL AND HYDROLOGICAL DYNAMICS
journal, May 2009
- Yi, Shuhua; McGuire, A. David; Harden, Jennifer
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, Vol. 114, Issue G2
Global vulnerability of peatlands to fire and carbon loss
journal, December 2014
- Turetsky, Merritt R.; Benscoter, Brian; Page, Susan
- Nature Geoscience, Vol. 8, Issue 1
Is the northern high-latitude land-based CO 2 sink weakening? : THE HIGH-LATITUDE CO
journal, August 2011
- Hayes, D. J.; McGuire, A. D.; Kicklighter, D. W.
- Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Vol. 25, Issue 3
Biomass Consumption and Behavior of Wildland Fires in Boreal, Temperate, and Tropical Ecosystems: Parameters Necessary to Interpret Historic Fire Regimes and Future Fire Scenarios
book, January 1997
- Stocks, B. J.; Kauffman, J. B.
- Sediment Records of Biomass Burning and Global Change
Effects of forest management on soil C and N storage: meta analysis
journal, January 2001
- Johnson, Dale W.; Curtis, Peter S.
- Forest Ecology and Management, Vol. 140, Issue 2-3
Future Effects of Ozone on Carbon Sequestration and Climate Change Policy Using a Global Biogeochemical Model
journal, December 2005
- Felzer, B.; Reilly, J.; Melillo, J.
- Climatic Change, Vol. 73, Issue 3
Projecting the future of the U.S. carbon sink
journal, February 2002
- Hurtt, G. C.; Pacala, S. W.; Moorcroft, P. R.
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 99, Issue 3
Palaeodata-informed modelling of large carbon losses from recent burning of boreal forests
journal, October 2015
- Kelly, Ryan; Genet, Hélène; McGuire, A. David
- Nature Climate Change, Vol. 6, Issue 1
Reconciling Carbon-cycle Concepts, Terminology, and Methods
journal, November 2006
- Chapin, F. S.; Woodwell, G. M.; Randerson, J. T.
- Ecosystems, Vol. 9, Issue 7
Estimates of CO2 from fires in the United States: implications for carbon management
journal, November 2007
- Wiedinmyer, Christine; Neff, Jason C.
- Carbon Balance and Management, Vol. 2, Issue 1
Forest floor fuel consumption and carbon emissions in Canadian boreal forest fires
journal, February 2009
- de Groot, W. J.; Pritchard, J. M.; Lynham, T. J.
- Canadian Journal of Forest Research, Vol. 39, Issue 2
Quantifying burned area for North American forests: Implications for direct reduction of carbon stocks
journal, January 2011
- Kasischke, Eric S.; Loboda, Tatiana; Giglio, Louis
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 116, Issue G4
Carbon cycling in extratropical terrestrial ecosystems of the Northern Hemisphere during the 20th century: a modeling analysis of the influences of soil thermal dynamics
journal, July 2003
- Zhuang, Q.; McGUIRE, A. D.; Melillo, J. M.
- Tellus B, Vol. 55, Issue 3
The Importance of Land-Use Legacies to Ecology and Conservation
journal, January 2003
- Foster, David; Swanson, Frederick; Aber, John
- BioScience, Vol. 53, Issue 1
Global estimation of burned area using MODIS active fire observations
journal, January 2006
- Giglio, L.; van der Werf, G. R.; Randerson, J. T.
- Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol. 6, Issue 4
The legacy of harvest and fire on ecosystem carbon storage in a north temperate forest
journal, September 2007
- Gough, Christopher M.; Vogel, Christoph S.; Harrold, Katherine H.
- Global Change Biology, Vol. 13, Issue 9
Estimating historical changes in global land cover: Croplands from 1700 to 1992
journal, December 1999
- Ramankutty, Navin; Foley, Jonathan A.
- Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Vol. 13, Issue 4
Impacts of disturbance on the terrestrial carbon budget of North America: DISTURBANCE AND CARBON CYCLING
journal, March 2013
- Kasischke, Eric S.; Amiro, Brian D.; Barger, Nichole N.
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, Vol. 118, Issue 1
Fire as the dominant driver of central Canadian boreal forest carbon balance
journal, November 2007
- Bond-Lamberty, Ben; Peckham, Scott D.; Ahl, Douglas E.
- Nature, Vol. 450, Issue 7166
Summer Moisture and Wildfire Risks across Canada
journal, March 2009
- Girardin, Martin P.; Wotton, B. Mike
- Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, Vol. 48, Issue 3
Continental-Scale Partitioning of Fire Emissions During the 1997 to 2001 El Nino/La Nina Period
journal, January 2004
- van der Werf, G. R.
- Science, Vol. 303, Issue 5654
Direct carbon emissions from Canadian forest fires, 1959-1999
journal, March 2001
- Amiro, B. D.; Todd, J. B.; Wotton, B. M.
- Canadian Journal of Forest Research, Vol. 31, Issue 3
Land carbon sequestration within the conterminous United States: Regional- and state-level analyses: Regional U.S. land sinks and legacies
journal, February 2015
- Lu, Xiaoliang; Kicklighter, David W.; Melillo, Jerry M.
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, Vol. 120, Issue 2