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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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:1457ee5302b542c599fb88929fda4df1 2023-06-11T04:09:23+02:00 Carbon emissions and radiative forcings from tundra wildfires in the Yukon–Kuskokwim River Delta, Alaska M. Moubarak S. Sistla S. Potter S. M. Natali B. M. Rogers 2023-04-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-1537-2023 https://doaj.org/article/1457ee5302b542c599fb88929fda4df1 EN eng Copernicus Publications https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/20/1537/2023/bg-20-1537-2023.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1726-4170 https://doaj.org/toc/1726-4189 doi:10.5194/bg-20-1537-2023 1726-4170 1726-4189 https://doaj.org/article/1457ee5302b542c599fb88929fda4df1 Biogeosciences, Vol 20, Pp 1537-1557 (2023) Ecology QH540-549.5 Life QH501-531 Geology QE1-996.5 article 2023 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-1537-2023 2023-04-23T00:35:04Z 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. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change Kuskokwim Tundra Alaska Yukon Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Yukon Biogeosciences 20 8 1537 1557 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Ecology QH540-549.5 Life QH501-531 Geology QE1-996.5 |
spellingShingle |
Ecology QH540-549.5 Life QH501-531 Geology QE1-996.5 M. Moubarak S. Sistla S. Potter S. M. Natali B. M. Rogers Carbon emissions and radiative forcings from tundra wildfires in the Yukon–Kuskokwim River Delta, Alaska |
topic_facet |
Ecology QH540-549.5 Life QH501-531 Geology QE1-996.5 |
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 |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
M. Moubarak S. Sistla S. Potter S. M. Natali B. M. Rogers |
author_facet |
M. Moubarak S. Sistla S. Potter S. M. Natali B. M. Rogers |
author_sort |
M. Moubarak |
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 |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-1537-2023 https://doaj.org/article/1457ee5302b542c599fb88929fda4df1 |
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 |
Biogeosciences, Vol 20, Pp 1537-1557 (2023) |
op_relation |
https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/20/1537/2023/bg-20-1537-2023.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1726-4170 https://doaj.org/toc/1726-4189 doi:10.5194/bg-20-1537-2023 1726-4170 1726-4189 https://doaj.org/article/1457ee5302b542c599fb88929fda4df1 |
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 |
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1768383197980131328 |