Reviews and syntheses: Arctic fire regimes and emissions in the 21st century
In recent years, the pan-Arctic region has experienced increasingly extreme fire seasons. Fires in the northern high latitudes are driven by current and future climate change, lightning, fuel conditions, and human activity. In this context, conceptualizing and parameterizing current and future Arcti...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:f3efdbcffd75460998f63723ebe5c8ec 2023-05-15T13:21:34+02:00 Reviews and syntheses: Arctic fire regimes and emissions in the 21st century J. L. McCarty J. Aalto V.-V. Paunu S. R. Arnold S. Eckhardt Z. Klimont J. J. Fain N. Evangeliou A. Venäläinen N. M. Tchebakova E. I. Parfenova K. Kupiainen A. J. Soja L. Huang S. Wilson 2021-09-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-5053-2021 https://doaj.org/article/f3efdbcffd75460998f63723ebe5c8ec EN eng Copernicus Publications https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/18/5053/2021/bg-18-5053-2021.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1726-4170 https://doaj.org/toc/1726-4189 doi:10.5194/bg-18-5053-2021 1726-4170 1726-4189 https://doaj.org/article/f3efdbcffd75460998f63723ebe5c8ec Biogeosciences, Vol 18, Pp 5053-5083 (2021) Ecology QH540-549.5 Life QH501-531 Geology QE1-996.5 article 2021 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-5053-2021 2022-12-31T04:30:35Z In recent years, the pan-Arctic region has experienced increasingly extreme fire seasons. Fires in the northern high latitudes are driven by current and future climate change, lightning, fuel conditions, and human activity. In this context, conceptualizing and parameterizing current and future Arctic fire regimes will be important for fire and land management as well as understanding current and predicting future fire emissions. The objectives of this review were driven by policy questions identified by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) Working Group and posed to its Expert Group on Short-Lived Climate Forcers. This review synthesizes current understanding of the changing Arctic and boreal fire regimes, particularly as fire activity and its response to future climate change in the pan-Arctic have consequences for Arctic Council states aiming to mitigate and adapt to climate change in the north. The conclusions from our synthesis are the following. (1) Current and future Arctic fires, and the adjacent boreal region, are driven by natural (i.e. lightning) and human-caused ignition sources, including fires caused by timber and energy extraction, prescribed burning for landscape management, and tourism activities. Little is published in the scientific literature about cultural burning by Indigenous populations across the pan-Arctic, and questions remain on the source of ignitions above 70 ∘ N in Arctic Russia. (2) Climate change is expected to make Arctic fires more likely by increasing the likelihood of extreme fire weather, increased lightning activity, and drier vegetative and ground fuel conditions. (3) To some extent, shifting agricultural land use and forest transitions from forest–steppe to steppe, tundra to taiga, and coniferous to deciduous in a warmer climate may increase and decrease open biomass burning, depending on land use in addition to climate-driven biome shifts. However, at the country and landscape scales, these relationships are not well established. (4) Current black carbon ... Article in Journal/Newspaper AMAP Arctic Council Arctic black carbon Climate change taiga Tundra Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Biogeosciences 18 18 5053 5083 |
institution |
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 J. L. McCarty J. Aalto V.-V. Paunu S. R. Arnold S. Eckhardt Z. Klimont J. J. Fain N. Evangeliou A. Venäläinen N. M. Tchebakova E. I. Parfenova K. Kupiainen A. J. Soja L. Huang S. Wilson Reviews and syntheses: Arctic fire regimes and emissions in the 21st century |
topic_facet |
Ecology QH540-549.5 Life QH501-531 Geology QE1-996.5 |
description |
In recent years, the pan-Arctic region has experienced increasingly extreme fire seasons. Fires in the northern high latitudes are driven by current and future climate change, lightning, fuel conditions, and human activity. In this context, conceptualizing and parameterizing current and future Arctic fire regimes will be important for fire and land management as well as understanding current and predicting future fire emissions. The objectives of this review were driven by policy questions identified by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) Working Group and posed to its Expert Group on Short-Lived Climate Forcers. This review synthesizes current understanding of the changing Arctic and boreal fire regimes, particularly as fire activity and its response to future climate change in the pan-Arctic have consequences for Arctic Council states aiming to mitigate and adapt to climate change in the north. The conclusions from our synthesis are the following. (1) Current and future Arctic fires, and the adjacent boreal region, are driven by natural (i.e. lightning) and human-caused ignition sources, including fires caused by timber and energy extraction, prescribed burning for landscape management, and tourism activities. Little is published in the scientific literature about cultural burning by Indigenous populations across the pan-Arctic, and questions remain on the source of ignitions above 70 ∘ N in Arctic Russia. (2) Climate change is expected to make Arctic fires more likely by increasing the likelihood of extreme fire weather, increased lightning activity, and drier vegetative and ground fuel conditions. (3) To some extent, shifting agricultural land use and forest transitions from forest–steppe to steppe, tundra to taiga, and coniferous to deciduous in a warmer climate may increase and decrease open biomass burning, depending on land use in addition to climate-driven biome shifts. However, at the country and landscape scales, these relationships are not well established. (4) Current black carbon ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
J. L. McCarty J. Aalto V.-V. Paunu S. R. Arnold S. Eckhardt Z. Klimont J. J. Fain N. Evangeliou A. Venäläinen N. M. Tchebakova E. I. Parfenova K. Kupiainen A. J. Soja L. Huang S. Wilson |
author_facet |
J. L. McCarty J. Aalto V.-V. Paunu S. R. Arnold S. Eckhardt Z. Klimont J. J. Fain N. Evangeliou A. Venäläinen N. M. Tchebakova E. I. Parfenova K. Kupiainen A. J. Soja L. Huang S. Wilson |
author_sort |
J. L. McCarty |
title |
Reviews and syntheses: Arctic fire regimes and emissions in the 21st century |
title_short |
Reviews and syntheses: Arctic fire regimes and emissions in the 21st century |
title_full |
Reviews and syntheses: Arctic fire regimes and emissions in the 21st century |
title_fullStr |
Reviews and syntheses: Arctic fire regimes and emissions in the 21st century |
title_full_unstemmed |
Reviews and syntheses: Arctic fire regimes and emissions in the 21st century |
title_sort |
reviews and syntheses: arctic fire regimes and emissions in the 21st century |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-5053-2021 https://doaj.org/article/f3efdbcffd75460998f63723ebe5c8ec |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
AMAP Arctic Council Arctic black carbon Climate change taiga Tundra |
genre_facet |
AMAP Arctic Council Arctic black carbon Climate change taiga Tundra |
op_source |
Biogeosciences, Vol 18, Pp 5053-5083 (2021) |
op_relation |
https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/18/5053/2021/bg-18-5053-2021.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1726-4170 https://doaj.org/toc/1726-4189 doi:10.5194/bg-18-5053-2021 1726-4170 1726-4189 https://doaj.org/article/f3efdbcffd75460998f63723ebe5c8ec |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-5053-2021 |
container_title |
Biogeosciences |
container_volume |
18 |
container_issue |
18 |
container_start_page |
5053 |
op_container_end_page |
5083 |
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1766360340015087616 |