Carbon emissions and radiative forcings from tundra wildfires in the Yukon–Kuskokwim River Delta, Alaska
Tundra environments are experiencing elevated levels of wildfire, and the frequency is expected to keep increasing due to rapid climate change in the Arctic. Tundra wildfires can release globally significant amounts of greenhouse gasses that influence the Earth's radiative balance. Here we deve...
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ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:bg104963 2023-06-11T04:09:22+02:00 Carbon emissions and radiative forcings from tundra wildfires in the Yukon–Kuskokwim River Delta, Alaska Moubarak, Michael Sistla, Seeta Potter, Stefano Natali, Susan M. Rogers, Brendan M. 2023-04-18 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-1537-2023 https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/20/1537/2023/ eng eng doi:10.5194/bg-20-1537-2023 https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/20/1537/2023/ eISSN: 1726-4189 Text 2023 ftcopernicus https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-1537-2023 2023-04-24T16:23:13Z Tundra environments are experiencing elevated levels of wildfire, and the frequency is expected to keep increasing due to rapid climate change in the Arctic. Tundra wildfires can release globally significant amounts of greenhouse gasses that influence the Earth's radiative balance. Here we develop a novel method for estimating carbon loss and the resulting radiative forcings of gaseous and aerosol emissions from the 2015 tundra wildfires in the Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta (YKD), Alaska. We paired burn depth measurements using two vegetative reference points that survived the fire event – Sphagnum fuscum and Dicranum spp. – with measurements of local organic matter and soil carbon properties to estimate total ecosystem organic matter and carbon loss. We used remotely sensed data on fire severity from Landsat 8 to scale our measured losses to the entire fire-affected area, with an estimated total loss of 2.04 Tg of organic matter and 0.91 Tg of carbon and an average loss of 3.76 kg m −2 of organic matter and 1.68 kg m −2 of carbon in the 2015 YKD wildfires. To demonstrate the impact of these fires on the Earth's radiation budget, we developed a simple but comprehensive framework to estimate the radiative forcing from Arctic wildfires. We synthesized existing research on the lifetime and radiative forcings of gaseous and aerosol emissions of CO 2 , N 2 O, CH 4 , O 3 and its precursors, and fire aerosols. The model shows a net positive cumulative mean radiative forcing of 3.67 W m −2 using representative concentration pathway (RCP) 4.5 and 3.37 W m −2 using RCP 8.5 at 80 years post-fire, which was dominated by CO 2 emissions. Our results highlight the climate impact of tundra wildfires, which positively reinforce climate warming and increased fire frequency through the radiative forcings of their gaseous emissions. Text Arctic Climate change Kuskokwim Tundra Alaska Yukon Copernicus Publications: E-Journals Arctic Yukon Biogeosciences 20 8 1537 1557 |
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Copernicus Publications: E-Journals |
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ftcopernicus |
language |
English |
description |
Tundra environments are experiencing elevated levels of wildfire, and the frequency is expected to keep increasing due to rapid climate change in the Arctic. Tundra wildfires can release globally significant amounts of greenhouse gasses that influence the Earth's radiative balance. Here we develop a novel method for estimating carbon loss and the resulting radiative forcings of gaseous and aerosol emissions from the 2015 tundra wildfires in the Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta (YKD), Alaska. We paired burn depth measurements using two vegetative reference points that survived the fire event – Sphagnum fuscum and Dicranum spp. – with measurements of local organic matter and soil carbon properties to estimate total ecosystem organic matter and carbon loss. We used remotely sensed data on fire severity from Landsat 8 to scale our measured losses to the entire fire-affected area, with an estimated total loss of 2.04 Tg of organic matter and 0.91 Tg of carbon and an average loss of 3.76 kg m −2 of organic matter and 1.68 kg m −2 of carbon in the 2015 YKD wildfires. To demonstrate the impact of these fires on the Earth's radiation budget, we developed a simple but comprehensive framework to estimate the radiative forcing from Arctic wildfires. We synthesized existing research on the lifetime and radiative forcings of gaseous and aerosol emissions of CO 2 , N 2 O, CH 4 , O 3 and its precursors, and fire aerosols. The model shows a net positive cumulative mean radiative forcing of 3.67 W m −2 using representative concentration pathway (RCP) 4.5 and 3.37 W m −2 using RCP 8.5 at 80 years post-fire, which was dominated by CO 2 emissions. Our results highlight the climate impact of tundra wildfires, which positively reinforce climate warming and increased fire frequency through the radiative forcings of their gaseous emissions. |
format |
Text |
author |
Moubarak, Michael Sistla, Seeta Potter, Stefano Natali, Susan M. Rogers, Brendan M. |
spellingShingle |
Moubarak, Michael Sistla, Seeta Potter, Stefano Natali, Susan M. Rogers, Brendan M. Carbon emissions and radiative forcings from tundra wildfires in the Yukon–Kuskokwim River Delta, Alaska |
author_facet |
Moubarak, Michael Sistla, Seeta Potter, Stefano Natali, Susan M. Rogers, Brendan M. |
author_sort |
Moubarak, Michael |
title |
Carbon emissions and radiative forcings from tundra wildfires in the Yukon–Kuskokwim River Delta, Alaska |
title_short |
Carbon emissions and radiative forcings from tundra wildfires in the Yukon–Kuskokwim River Delta, Alaska |
title_full |
Carbon emissions and radiative forcings from tundra wildfires in the Yukon–Kuskokwim River Delta, Alaska |
title_fullStr |
Carbon emissions and radiative forcings from tundra wildfires in the Yukon–Kuskokwim River Delta, Alaska |
title_full_unstemmed |
Carbon emissions and radiative forcings from tundra wildfires in the Yukon–Kuskokwim River Delta, Alaska |
title_sort |
carbon emissions and radiative forcings from tundra wildfires in the yukon–kuskokwim river delta, alaska |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-1537-2023 https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/20/1537/2023/ |
geographic |
Arctic Yukon |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Yukon |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Kuskokwim Tundra Alaska Yukon |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Kuskokwim Tundra Alaska Yukon |
op_source |
eISSN: 1726-4189 |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/bg-20-1537-2023 https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/20/1537/2023/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-1537-2023 |
container_title |
Biogeosciences |
container_volume |
20 |
container_issue |
8 |
container_start_page |
1537 |
op_container_end_page |
1557 |
_version_ |
1768383178122199040 |