Climatic and vegetational controls of Holocene wildfire regimes in the boreal forest of northern Fennoscandia
Abstract Climate change is expected to increase wildfire activity in boreal ecosystems, thus threatening the carbon stocks of these forests, which are currently the largest terrestrial carbon sink in the world. Describing the ecological processes involved in fire regimes in terms of frequency, size,...
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crwiley:10.1111/1365-2745.14065 2024-09-15T18:05:52+00:00 Climatic and vegetational controls of Holocene wildfire regimes in the boreal forest of northern Fennoscandia Remy, Cécile C. Magne, Gwenaël Stivrins, Normunds Aakala, Tuomas Asselin, Hugo Seppä, Heikki Luoto, Tomi Jasiunas, Nauris Ali, Adam A. Academy of Finland Agence Nationale de la Recherche SNS Nordic Forest Research 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.14065 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1365-2745.14065 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/1365-2745.14065 https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1365-2745.14065 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Journal of Ecology volume 111, issue 4, page 845-860 ISSN 0022-0477 1365-2745 journal-article 2023 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.14065 2024-08-27T04:31:40Z Abstract Climate change is expected to increase wildfire activity in boreal ecosystems, thus threatening the carbon stocks of these forests, which are currently the largest terrestrial carbon sink in the world. Describing the ecological processes involved in fire regimes in terms of frequency, size, type (surface vs. crown) and severity (biomass burned) would allow better anticipation of the impact of climate change on these forests. In Fennoscandia, this objective is currently difficult to achieve due to the lack of knowledge of long‐term (centuries to millennia) relationships between climate, fire and vegetation. We investigated the causes and consequences of changes in fire regimes during the Holocene (last ~11,000 years) on vegetation trajectories in the boreal forest of northern Finland. We reconstructed fire histories from sedimentary charcoal at three sites, as well as vegetation dynamics from pollen, moisture changes from Sphagnum spore abundance at two sites, and complemented these analyses with published regional chironomid‐inferred July temperature reconstructions. Low‐frequency, large fires were recorded during the warm and dry mid‐Holocene period (8500–4500 cal. year BP), whereas high‐frequency, small fires were more characteristic of the cool and wet Neoglacial period (4500 cal. year BP onward). A higher proportion of charcoal particles with a woody aspect—characterizing crown fires—was recorded at one of the two sites at times of significant climatic and vegetational changes, when the abundance of Picea abies was higher. Synthesis. Our results show both a direct and an indirect effect of climate on fire regimes in northern Fennoscandia. Warm and dry periods are conducive to large surface fires, whereas cool and moist periods are associated with small fires, either crown or surface. Climate‐induced shifts in forest composition also affect fire regimes. Climatic instability can alter vegetation composition and structure and lead to fuel accumulation favouring stand‐replacing crown fires. Considering ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Fennoscandia Northern Finland Wiley Online Library Journal of Ecology 111 4 845 860 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Wiley Online Library |
op_collection_id |
crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
Abstract Climate change is expected to increase wildfire activity in boreal ecosystems, thus threatening the carbon stocks of these forests, which are currently the largest terrestrial carbon sink in the world. Describing the ecological processes involved in fire regimes in terms of frequency, size, type (surface vs. crown) and severity (biomass burned) would allow better anticipation of the impact of climate change on these forests. In Fennoscandia, this objective is currently difficult to achieve due to the lack of knowledge of long‐term (centuries to millennia) relationships between climate, fire and vegetation. We investigated the causes and consequences of changes in fire regimes during the Holocene (last ~11,000 years) on vegetation trajectories in the boreal forest of northern Finland. We reconstructed fire histories from sedimentary charcoal at three sites, as well as vegetation dynamics from pollen, moisture changes from Sphagnum spore abundance at two sites, and complemented these analyses with published regional chironomid‐inferred July temperature reconstructions. Low‐frequency, large fires were recorded during the warm and dry mid‐Holocene period (8500–4500 cal. year BP), whereas high‐frequency, small fires were more characteristic of the cool and wet Neoglacial period (4500 cal. year BP onward). A higher proportion of charcoal particles with a woody aspect—characterizing crown fires—was recorded at one of the two sites at times of significant climatic and vegetational changes, when the abundance of Picea abies was higher. Synthesis. Our results show both a direct and an indirect effect of climate on fire regimes in northern Fennoscandia. Warm and dry periods are conducive to large surface fires, whereas cool and moist periods are associated with small fires, either crown or surface. Climate‐induced shifts in forest composition also affect fire regimes. Climatic instability can alter vegetation composition and structure and lead to fuel accumulation favouring stand‐replacing crown fires. Considering ... |
author2 |
Academy of Finland Agence Nationale de la Recherche SNS Nordic Forest Research |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Remy, Cécile C. Magne, Gwenaël Stivrins, Normunds Aakala, Tuomas Asselin, Hugo Seppä, Heikki Luoto, Tomi Jasiunas, Nauris Ali, Adam A. |
spellingShingle |
Remy, Cécile C. Magne, Gwenaël Stivrins, Normunds Aakala, Tuomas Asselin, Hugo Seppä, Heikki Luoto, Tomi Jasiunas, Nauris Ali, Adam A. Climatic and vegetational controls of Holocene wildfire regimes in the boreal forest of northern Fennoscandia |
author_facet |
Remy, Cécile C. Magne, Gwenaël Stivrins, Normunds Aakala, Tuomas Asselin, Hugo Seppä, Heikki Luoto, Tomi Jasiunas, Nauris Ali, Adam A. |
author_sort |
Remy, Cécile C. |
title |
Climatic and vegetational controls of Holocene wildfire regimes in the boreal forest of northern Fennoscandia |
title_short |
Climatic and vegetational controls of Holocene wildfire regimes in the boreal forest of northern Fennoscandia |
title_full |
Climatic and vegetational controls of Holocene wildfire regimes in the boreal forest of northern Fennoscandia |
title_fullStr |
Climatic and vegetational controls of Holocene wildfire regimes in the boreal forest of northern Fennoscandia |
title_full_unstemmed |
Climatic and vegetational controls of Holocene wildfire regimes in the boreal forest of northern Fennoscandia |
title_sort |
climatic and vegetational controls of holocene wildfire regimes in the boreal forest of northern fennoscandia |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.14065 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1365-2745.14065 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/1365-2745.14065 https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1365-2745.14065 |
genre |
Fennoscandia Northern Finland |
genre_facet |
Fennoscandia Northern Finland |
op_source |
Journal of Ecology volume 111, issue 4, page 845-860 ISSN 0022-0477 1365-2745 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.14065 |
container_title |
Journal of Ecology |
container_volume |
111 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
845 |
op_container_end_page |
860 |
_version_ |
1810443372577423360 |