North American boreal forests are a large carbon source due to wildfires from 1986 to 2016
Abstract
Wildfires are a major disturbance to forest carbon (C) balance through both immediate combustion emissions and post-fire ecosystem dynamics. Here we used a process-based biogeochemistry model, the Terrestrial Ecosystem Model (TEM), to simulate C budget in Alaska and Canada during 1986–2016, as impacted by fire disturbances. We extracted the data of difference Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) for fires from Landsat TM/ETM imagery and estimated the proportion of vegetation and soil C combustion. We observed that the region was a C source of 2.74 Pg C during the 31-year period. The observed C loss, 57.1 Tg C year-1, was attributed to fire emissions, overwhelming the net ecosystem production (1.9 Tg C year-1) in the region. Our simulated direct emissions for Alaska and Canada are within the range of field measurements and other model estimates. As burn severity increased, combustion emission tended to switch from vegetation origin towards soil origin. When dNBR is below 300, fires increase soil temperature and decrease soil moisture and thus, enhance soil respiration. However, the post-fire soil respiration decreases for moderate or high burn severity. The proportion of post-fire soil emission in total emissions increased with burn severity. Net nitrogen mineralization gradually recovered after fire, enhancing netmore »
- Authors:
-
- Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States). Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences
- Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States). Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences; Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States). Dept. of Agronomy
- Natural Resources Inst. Finland (Luke), Maaninka (Finland). Production Systems- Milk Production Unit
- Univ. of Helsinki (Finland). Dept. of Forest Sciences
- Univ. of Eastern Finland, Joensuu (Finland). Dept. of Environmental and Biological Sciences
- Univ. of Eastern Finland, Kuopio (Finland). Dept. of Environmental and Biological Sciences
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE; National Science Foundation (NSF); USGS
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1816995
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0007007; SC0008092; 1802832; G17AC00276
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Scientific Reports
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 11; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2045-2322
- Publisher:
- Nature Publishing Group
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; boreal ecology; fire ecology
Citation Formats
Zhao, Bailu, Zhuang, Qianlai, Shurpali, Narasinha, Köster, Kajar, Berninger, Frank, and Pumpanen, Jukka. North American boreal forests are a large carbon source due to wildfires from 1986 to 2016. United States: N. p., 2021.
Web. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-87343-3.
Zhao, Bailu, Zhuang, Qianlai, Shurpali, Narasinha, Köster, Kajar, Berninger, Frank, & Pumpanen, Jukka. North American boreal forests are a large carbon source due to wildfires from 1986 to 2016. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-87343-3
Zhao, Bailu, Zhuang, Qianlai, Shurpali, Narasinha, Köster, Kajar, Berninger, Frank, and Pumpanen, Jukka. Thu .
"North American boreal forests are a large carbon source due to wildfires from 1986 to 2016". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-87343-3. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1816995.
@article{osti_1816995,
title = {North American boreal forests are a large carbon source due to wildfires from 1986 to 2016},
author = {Zhao, Bailu and Zhuang, Qianlai and Shurpali, Narasinha and Köster, Kajar and Berninger, Frank and Pumpanen, Jukka},
abstractNote = {Wildfires are a major disturbance to forest carbon (C) balance through both immediate combustion emissions and post-fire ecosystem dynamics. Here we used a process-based biogeochemistry model, the Terrestrial Ecosystem Model (TEM), to simulate C budget in Alaska and Canada during 1986–2016, as impacted by fire disturbances. We extracted the data of difference Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) for fires from Landsat TM/ETM imagery and estimated the proportion of vegetation and soil C combustion. We observed that the region was a C source of 2.74 Pg C during the 31-year period. The observed C loss, 57.1 Tg C year-1, was attributed to fire emissions, overwhelming the net ecosystem production (1.9 Tg C year-1) in the region. Our simulated direct emissions for Alaska and Canada are within the range of field measurements and other model estimates. As burn severity increased, combustion emission tended to switch from vegetation origin towards soil origin. When dNBR is below 300, fires increase soil temperature and decrease soil moisture and thus, enhance soil respiration. However, the post-fire soil respiration decreases for moderate or high burn severity. The proportion of post-fire soil emission in total emissions increased with burn severity. Net nitrogen mineralization gradually recovered after fire, enhancing net primary production. Net ecosystem production recovered fast under higher burn severities. The impact of fire disturbance on the C balance of northern ecosystems and the associated uncertainties can be better characterized with long-term, prior-, during- and post-disturbance data across the geospatial spectrum. Our findings suggest that the regional source of carbon to the atmosphere will persist if the observed forest wildfire occurrence and severity continues into the future.},
doi = {10.1038/s41598-021-87343-3},
journal = {Scientific Reports},
number = 1,
volume = 11,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Apr 08 00:00:00 EDT 2021},
month = {Thu Apr 08 00:00:00 EDT 2021}
}
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