Carbon emissions from a temperate coastal peatland wildfire: contributions from natural plant communities and organic soils

• Published in: Carbon Balance and Management
• Main Author: Robert A. Mickler
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2021
• Subjects: C emissions; dNBR; Ground fire; LIDAR; Peatland; Temperate; Environmental sciences; GE1-350; Subarctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13021-021-00189-0; https://doaj.org/article/c98bfc88b73e4b23a341633900b72521

Abstract Background One of the scientific challenges of understanding climate change has been determining the important drivers and metrics of global carbon (C) emissions and C cycling in tropical, subtropical, boreal, subarctic, and temperate peatlands. Peatlands account for 3% of global land cover, yet contain a major reservoir of 550 gigatons (Gt) of soil C, and serve as C sinks for 0.37 Gt of carbon dioxide (CO2) a year. In the United States, temperate peatlands are estimated to store 455 petagrams of C (PgC). There has been increasing interest in the role of wildfires in C cycling and altering peatlands from C sinks to major C sources. We estimated above- and below-ground C emissions from the Pains Bay Fire, a long-duration wildfire (112 days; 18,329 ha) that burned a coastal peatland in eastern North Carolina, USA. Results Soil C emissions were estimated from pre- and post-burn Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) soil elevation data, soils series and C content mapping, remotely sensed soil burn severity, and post-burn field surveys of soil elevation. Total above-ground C emissions from the fire were 2,89,579 t C and 214 t C ha−1 for the 10 vegetation associations within the burn area perimeter. Above-ground sources of C emissions were comprised of litter (69,656 t C), shrub (1,68,983 t C), and foliage (50,940 t C). Total mean below-ground C emissions were 5,237,521 t C, and ranged from 2,630,529 to 8,287,900 t C, depending on organic matter content of different soil horizons within each of the 7 soil series. The mean below-ground C emissions within the burn area were 1,595.6 t C ha−1 and ranged from 629.3 to 2511.3 t C ha−1. Conclusions In contrast to undisturbed temperate peatlands, human induced disturbances of the natural elevation gradient of the peatland has resulted in increased heterogeneity of floristic variation and assemblages that are a product of the spatial and temporal patterns of the water table level and the surface wetness across peatlands. Human induced changes in surface hydrology and ...