The effects of fire on the thermal stability of permafrost in lowland and upland black spruce forests of interior Alaska in a changing climate
Fire is an important factor controlling the composition and thickness of the organic layer in the black spruce forest ecosystems of interior Alaska. Fire that burns the organic layer can trigger dramatic changes in the underlying permafrost, leading to accelerated ground thawing within a relatively...
Published in: | Environmental Research Letters |
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/035030 https://doaj.org/article/7cd5ed3d2926400db6606fab4e4e2f81 |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:7cd5ed3d2926400db6606fab4e4e2f81 2023-09-05T13:22:25+02:00 The effects of fire on the thermal stability of permafrost in lowland and upland black spruce forests of interior Alaska in a changing climate E E Jafarov V E Romanovsky H Genet A D McGuire S S Marchenko 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/035030 https://doaj.org/article/7cd5ed3d2926400db6606fab4e4e2f81 EN eng IOP Publishing https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/035030 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/035030 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/7cd5ed3d2926400db6606fab4e4e2f81 Environmental Research Letters, Vol 8, Iss 3, p 035030 (2013) permafrost wildfires active layer carbon cycle climate change GIPL Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 article 2013 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/035030 2023-08-13T00:37:28Z Fire is an important factor controlling the composition and thickness of the organic layer in the black spruce forest ecosystems of interior Alaska. Fire that burns the organic layer can trigger dramatic changes in the underlying permafrost, leading to accelerated ground thawing within a relatively short time. In this study, we addressed the following questions. (1) Which factors determine post-fire ground temperature dynamics in lowland and upland black spruce forests? (2) What levels of burn severity will cause irreversible permafrost degradation in these ecosystems? We evaluated these questions in a transient modeling–sensitivity analysis framework to assess the sensitivity of permafrost to climate, burn severity, soil organic layer thickness, and soil moisture content in lowland (with thick organic layers, ∼80 cm) and upland (with thin organic layers, ∼30 cm) black spruce ecosystems. The results indicate that climate warming accompanied by fire disturbance could significantly accelerate permafrost degradation. In upland black spruce forest, permafrost could completely degrade in an 18 m soil column within 120 years of a severe fire in an unchanging climate. In contrast, in a lowland black spruce forest, permafrost is more resilient to disturbance and can persist under a combination of moderate burn severity and climate warming. Article in Journal/Newspaper permafrost Alaska Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Environmental Research Letters 8 3 035030 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
permafrost wildfires active layer carbon cycle climate change GIPL Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
spellingShingle |
permafrost wildfires active layer carbon cycle climate change GIPL Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 E E Jafarov V E Romanovsky H Genet A D McGuire S S Marchenko The effects of fire on the thermal stability of permafrost in lowland and upland black spruce forests of interior Alaska in a changing climate |
topic_facet |
permafrost wildfires active layer carbon cycle climate change GIPL Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
description |
Fire is an important factor controlling the composition and thickness of the organic layer in the black spruce forest ecosystems of interior Alaska. Fire that burns the organic layer can trigger dramatic changes in the underlying permafrost, leading to accelerated ground thawing within a relatively short time. In this study, we addressed the following questions. (1) Which factors determine post-fire ground temperature dynamics in lowland and upland black spruce forests? (2) What levels of burn severity will cause irreversible permafrost degradation in these ecosystems? We evaluated these questions in a transient modeling–sensitivity analysis framework to assess the sensitivity of permafrost to climate, burn severity, soil organic layer thickness, and soil moisture content in lowland (with thick organic layers, ∼80 cm) and upland (with thin organic layers, ∼30 cm) black spruce ecosystems. The results indicate that climate warming accompanied by fire disturbance could significantly accelerate permafrost degradation. In upland black spruce forest, permafrost could completely degrade in an 18 m soil column within 120 years of a severe fire in an unchanging climate. In contrast, in a lowland black spruce forest, permafrost is more resilient to disturbance and can persist under a combination of moderate burn severity and climate warming. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
E E Jafarov V E Romanovsky H Genet A D McGuire S S Marchenko |
author_facet |
E E Jafarov V E Romanovsky H Genet A D McGuire S S Marchenko |
author_sort |
E E Jafarov |
title |
The effects of fire on the thermal stability of permafrost in lowland and upland black spruce forests of interior Alaska in a changing climate |
title_short |
The effects of fire on the thermal stability of permafrost in lowland and upland black spruce forests of interior Alaska in a changing climate |
title_full |
The effects of fire on the thermal stability of permafrost in lowland and upland black spruce forests of interior Alaska in a changing climate |
title_fullStr |
The effects of fire on the thermal stability of permafrost in lowland and upland black spruce forests of interior Alaska in a changing climate |
title_full_unstemmed |
The effects of fire on the thermal stability of permafrost in lowland and upland black spruce forests of interior Alaska in a changing climate |
title_sort |
effects of fire on the thermal stability of permafrost in lowland and upland black spruce forests of interior alaska in a changing climate |
publisher |
IOP Publishing |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/035030 https://doaj.org/article/7cd5ed3d2926400db6606fab4e4e2f81 |
genre |
permafrost Alaska |
genre_facet |
permafrost Alaska |
op_source |
Environmental Research Letters, Vol 8, Iss 3, p 035030 (2013) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/035030 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/035030 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/7cd5ed3d2926400db6606fab4e4e2f81 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/035030 |
container_title |
Environmental Research Letters |
container_volume |
8 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
035030 |
_version_ |
1776202936717672448 |