Recent massive expansion of wildfire and its impact on active layer over pan-Arctic permafrost
Wildfire is recognized as an increasing threat to the southern boreal forests and the permafrost beneath them, with less occurring over the cold continuous permafrost than before. However, we show that continuous permafrost was a major contribution to wildfire expansion in the pan-Arctic over the la...
Published in: | Environmental Research Letters |
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ace205 https://doaj.org/article/c24610b523bd4f87935bd79d38b1317c |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:c24610b523bd4f87935bd79d38b1317c 2023-09-05T13:11:10+02:00 Recent massive expansion of wildfire and its impact on active layer over pan-Arctic permafrost Xingru Zhu Xiyan Xu Gensuo Jia 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ace205 https://doaj.org/article/c24610b523bd4f87935bd79d38b1317c EN eng IOP Publishing https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ace205 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ace205 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/c24610b523bd4f87935bd79d38b1317c Environmental Research Letters, Vol 18, Iss 8, p 084010 (2023) active layer thickness belowground combustion permafrost wildfire Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 article 2023 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ace205 2023-08-13T00:36:54Z Wildfire is recognized as an increasing threat to the southern boreal forests and the permafrost beneath them, with less occurring over the cold continuous permafrost than before. However, we show that continuous permafrost was a major contribution to wildfire expansion in the pan-Arctic over the last two decades. The expansion rate of burned area over continuous permafrost was 0.9 Mha decade ^−1 , in contrast to a decreasing trend (−0.5 Mha decade ^−1 ) over the entire permafrost areas. Burned area has been rapidly growing in the north of the Arctic Circle in particular, where the total burned area in the major fire seasons during 2011–2020 nearly doubled that during 2001–2010. Wildfire expansion is closely linked to an increased soil moisture deficit, considering wildfires there combust more than 90% of belowground fuel. Continuous permafrost experiences more severe fire-induced degradation. Active layer thickening following wildfires over continuous permafrost lasts more than three decades to reach a maximum of more than triple the pre-fire thickness. These new findings highlight the massive expansion of wildfires over continuous permafrost, which can dramatically modify ecological processes, disturb organic carbon stock, and thus accelerate the positive feedback between permafrost degradation and climate warming. Article in Journal/Newspaper Active layer thickness Arctic permafrost Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Environmental Research Letters 18 8 084010 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
active layer thickness belowground combustion permafrost wildfire Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
spellingShingle |
active layer thickness belowground combustion permafrost wildfire Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 Xingru Zhu Xiyan Xu Gensuo Jia Recent massive expansion of wildfire and its impact on active layer over pan-Arctic permafrost |
topic_facet |
active layer thickness belowground combustion permafrost wildfire Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
description |
Wildfire is recognized as an increasing threat to the southern boreal forests and the permafrost beneath them, with less occurring over the cold continuous permafrost than before. However, we show that continuous permafrost was a major contribution to wildfire expansion in the pan-Arctic over the last two decades. The expansion rate of burned area over continuous permafrost was 0.9 Mha decade ^−1 , in contrast to a decreasing trend (−0.5 Mha decade ^−1 ) over the entire permafrost areas. Burned area has been rapidly growing in the north of the Arctic Circle in particular, where the total burned area in the major fire seasons during 2011–2020 nearly doubled that during 2001–2010. Wildfire expansion is closely linked to an increased soil moisture deficit, considering wildfires there combust more than 90% of belowground fuel. Continuous permafrost experiences more severe fire-induced degradation. Active layer thickening following wildfires over continuous permafrost lasts more than three decades to reach a maximum of more than triple the pre-fire thickness. These new findings highlight the massive expansion of wildfires over continuous permafrost, which can dramatically modify ecological processes, disturb organic carbon stock, and thus accelerate the positive feedback between permafrost degradation and climate warming. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Xingru Zhu Xiyan Xu Gensuo Jia |
author_facet |
Xingru Zhu Xiyan Xu Gensuo Jia |
author_sort |
Xingru Zhu |
title |
Recent massive expansion of wildfire and its impact on active layer over pan-Arctic permafrost |
title_short |
Recent massive expansion of wildfire and its impact on active layer over pan-Arctic permafrost |
title_full |
Recent massive expansion of wildfire and its impact on active layer over pan-Arctic permafrost |
title_fullStr |
Recent massive expansion of wildfire and its impact on active layer over pan-Arctic permafrost |
title_full_unstemmed |
Recent massive expansion of wildfire and its impact on active layer over pan-Arctic permafrost |
title_sort |
recent massive expansion of wildfire and its impact on active layer over pan-arctic permafrost |
publisher |
IOP Publishing |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ace205 https://doaj.org/article/c24610b523bd4f87935bd79d38b1317c |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Active layer thickness Arctic permafrost |
genre_facet |
Active layer thickness Arctic permafrost |
op_source |
Environmental Research Letters, Vol 18, Iss 8, p 084010 (2023) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ace205 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ace205 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/c24610b523bd4f87935bd79d38b1317c |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ace205 |
container_title |
Environmental Research Letters |
container_volume |
18 |
container_issue |
8 |
container_start_page |
084010 |
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1776198335236931584 |