REPORTS The Impact of Boreal Forest Fire on Climate Warming

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic; albedo; black carbon; Climate change; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.419.9523; http://www.lter.uaf.edu/pdf/1091_Randerson_Liu_2006.pdf

We report measurements and analysis of a boreal forest fire, integrating the effects of greenhouse gases, aerosols, black carbon deposition on snow and sea ice, and postfire changes in surface albedo. The net effect of all agents was to increase radiative forcing during the first year (34 ± 31 Watts per square meter of burned area), but to decrease radiative forcing when averaged over an 80-year fire cycle (−2.3 ± 2.2 Watts per square meter) because multidecadal increases in surface albedo had a larger impact than fire-emitted greenhouse gases. This result implies that future increases in boreal fire may not accelerate climate warming. Arctic and boreal regions are warming rapidly, with multiple consequences for northern ecosystems and global climate (1). In boreal ecosystems, future increases in air temperature may lengthen the fire season and increase the probability of fires, leading some to hypothesize a positive feedback between warming, fire activity, carbon loss, and future climate change