Unprecedented fire activity above the Arctic Circle linked to rising temperatures
Arctic fires can release large amounts of carbon from permafrost peatlands. Satellite observations reveal that fires burned ~4.7 million hectares in 2019 and 2020, accounting for 44% of the total burned area in the Siberian Arctic for the entire 1982–2020 period. The summer of 2020 was the warmest i...
Published in: | Science |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
2022
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abn9768 https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.abn9768 |
id |
craaas:10.1126/science.abn9768 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
craaas:10.1126/science.abn9768 2024-10-13T14:04:18+00:00 Unprecedented fire activity above the Arctic Circle linked to rising temperatures Descals, Adrià Gaveau, David L. A. Verger, Aleixandre Sheil, Douglas Naito, Daisuke Peñuelas, Josep 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abn9768 https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.abn9768 en eng American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science volume 378, issue 6619, page 532-537 ISSN 0036-8075 1095-9203 journal-article 2022 craaas https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abn9768 2024-09-27T04:00:55Z Arctic fires can release large amounts of carbon from permafrost peatlands. Satellite observations reveal that fires burned ~4.7 million hectares in 2019 and 2020, accounting for 44% of the total burned area in the Siberian Arctic for the entire 1982–2020 period. The summer of 2020 was the warmest in four decades, with fires burning an unprecedentedly large area of carbon-rich soils. We show that factors of fire associated with temperature have increased in recent decades and identified a near-exponential relationship between these factors and annual burned area. Large fires in the Arctic are likely to recur with climatic warming before mid-century, because the temperature trend is reaching a threshold in which small increases in temperature are associated with exponential increases in the area burned. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic permafrost AAAS Resource Center (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Arctic Science 378 6619 532 537 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
AAAS Resource Center (American Association for the Advancement of Science) |
op_collection_id |
craaas |
language |
English |
description |
Arctic fires can release large amounts of carbon from permafrost peatlands. Satellite observations reveal that fires burned ~4.7 million hectares in 2019 and 2020, accounting for 44% of the total burned area in the Siberian Arctic for the entire 1982–2020 period. The summer of 2020 was the warmest in four decades, with fires burning an unprecedentedly large area of carbon-rich soils. We show that factors of fire associated with temperature have increased in recent decades and identified a near-exponential relationship between these factors and annual burned area. Large fires in the Arctic are likely to recur with climatic warming before mid-century, because the temperature trend is reaching a threshold in which small increases in temperature are associated with exponential increases in the area burned. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Descals, Adrià Gaveau, David L. A. Verger, Aleixandre Sheil, Douglas Naito, Daisuke Peñuelas, Josep |
spellingShingle |
Descals, Adrià Gaveau, David L. A. Verger, Aleixandre Sheil, Douglas Naito, Daisuke Peñuelas, Josep Unprecedented fire activity above the Arctic Circle linked to rising temperatures |
author_facet |
Descals, Adrià Gaveau, David L. A. Verger, Aleixandre Sheil, Douglas Naito, Daisuke Peñuelas, Josep |
author_sort |
Descals, Adrià |
title |
Unprecedented fire activity above the Arctic Circle linked to rising temperatures |
title_short |
Unprecedented fire activity above the Arctic Circle linked to rising temperatures |
title_full |
Unprecedented fire activity above the Arctic Circle linked to rising temperatures |
title_fullStr |
Unprecedented fire activity above the Arctic Circle linked to rising temperatures |
title_full_unstemmed |
Unprecedented fire activity above the Arctic Circle linked to rising temperatures |
title_sort |
unprecedented fire activity above the arctic circle linked to rising temperatures |
publisher |
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abn9768 https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.abn9768 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic permafrost |
genre_facet |
Arctic permafrost |
op_source |
Science volume 378, issue 6619, page 532-537 ISSN 0036-8075 1095-9203 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abn9768 |
container_title |
Science |
container_volume |
378 |
container_issue |
6619 |
container_start_page |
532 |
op_container_end_page |
537 |
_version_ |
1812809448793571328 |