Frequent fires in ancient shrub tundra: implications of paleorecords for arctic environmental change.
Understanding feedbacks between terrestrial and atmospheric systems is vital for predicting the consequences of global change, particularly in the rapidly changing Arctic. Fire is a key process in this context, but the consequences of altered fire regimes in tundra ecosystems are rarely considered,...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:e0d94c291544433b823b4e200f3c9e21 2023-05-15T14:51:34+02:00 Frequent fires in ancient shrub tundra: implications of paleorecords for arctic environmental change. Philip E Higuera Linda B Brubaker Patricia M Anderson Thomas A Brown Alison T Kennedy Feng Sheng Hu 2008-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001744 https://doaj.org/article/e0d94c291544433b823b4e200f3c9e21 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC2254503?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001744 https://doaj.org/article/e0d94c291544433b823b4e200f3c9e21 PLoS ONE, Vol 3, Iss 3, p e0001744 (2008) Medicine R Science Q article 2008 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001744 2022-12-31T05:35:58Z Understanding feedbacks between terrestrial and atmospheric systems is vital for predicting the consequences of global change, particularly in the rapidly changing Arctic. Fire is a key process in this context, but the consequences of altered fire regimes in tundra ecosystems are rarely considered, largely because tundra fires occur infrequently on the modern landscape. We present paleoecological data that indicate frequent tundra fires in northcentral Alaska between 14,000 and 10,000 years ago. Charcoal and pollen from lake sediments reveal that ancient birch-dominated shrub tundra burned as often as modern boreal forests in the region, every 144 years on average (+/- 90 s.d.; n = 44). Although paleoclimate interpretations and data from modern tundra fires suggest that increased burning was aided by low effective moisture, vegetation cover clearly played a critical role in facilitating the paleofires by creating an abundance of fine fuels. These records suggest that greater fire activity will likely accompany temperature-related increases in shrub-dominated tundra predicted for the 21(st) century and beyond. Increased tundra burning will have broad impacts on physical and biological systems as well as on land-atmosphere interactions in the Arctic, including the potential to release stored organic carbon to the atmosphere. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Tundra Alaska Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic PLoS ONE 3 3 e0001744 |
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Open Polar |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Medicine R Science Q |
spellingShingle |
Medicine R Science Q Philip E Higuera Linda B Brubaker Patricia M Anderson Thomas A Brown Alison T Kennedy Feng Sheng Hu Frequent fires in ancient shrub tundra: implications of paleorecords for arctic environmental change. |
topic_facet |
Medicine R Science Q |
description |
Understanding feedbacks between terrestrial and atmospheric systems is vital for predicting the consequences of global change, particularly in the rapidly changing Arctic. Fire is a key process in this context, but the consequences of altered fire regimes in tundra ecosystems are rarely considered, largely because tundra fires occur infrequently on the modern landscape. We present paleoecological data that indicate frequent tundra fires in northcentral Alaska between 14,000 and 10,000 years ago. Charcoal and pollen from lake sediments reveal that ancient birch-dominated shrub tundra burned as often as modern boreal forests in the region, every 144 years on average (+/- 90 s.d.; n = 44). Although paleoclimate interpretations and data from modern tundra fires suggest that increased burning was aided by low effective moisture, vegetation cover clearly played a critical role in facilitating the paleofires by creating an abundance of fine fuels. These records suggest that greater fire activity will likely accompany temperature-related increases in shrub-dominated tundra predicted for the 21(st) century and beyond. Increased tundra burning will have broad impacts on physical and biological systems as well as on land-atmosphere interactions in the Arctic, including the potential to release stored organic carbon to the atmosphere. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Philip E Higuera Linda B Brubaker Patricia M Anderson Thomas A Brown Alison T Kennedy Feng Sheng Hu |
author_facet |
Philip E Higuera Linda B Brubaker Patricia M Anderson Thomas A Brown Alison T Kennedy Feng Sheng Hu |
author_sort |
Philip E Higuera |
title |
Frequent fires in ancient shrub tundra: implications of paleorecords for arctic environmental change. |
title_short |
Frequent fires in ancient shrub tundra: implications of paleorecords for arctic environmental change. |
title_full |
Frequent fires in ancient shrub tundra: implications of paleorecords for arctic environmental change. |
title_fullStr |
Frequent fires in ancient shrub tundra: implications of paleorecords for arctic environmental change. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Frequent fires in ancient shrub tundra: implications of paleorecords for arctic environmental change. |
title_sort |
frequent fires in ancient shrub tundra: implications of paleorecords for arctic environmental change. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2008 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001744 https://doaj.org/article/e0d94c291544433b823b4e200f3c9e21 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Tundra Alaska |
genre_facet |
Arctic Tundra Alaska |
op_source |
PLoS ONE, Vol 3, Iss 3, p e0001744 (2008) |
op_relation |
http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC2254503?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001744 https://doaj.org/article/e0d94c291544433b823b4e200f3c9e21 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001744 |
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PLoS ONE |
container_volume |
3 |
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3 |
container_start_page |
e0001744 |
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1766322700094013440 |