Fire at high latitudes: Data-model comparisons and their consequences
Fire is an endemic process at high latitudes, connected to a range of other land surface properties, such as land cover, biomass, and permafrost, and intimately linked to the carbon balance of the high-latitude land surface. Much of our current understanding of these links and their climate conseque...
Published in: | Global Biogeochemical Cycles |
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American Geophysical Union
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Online Access: | https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/86266/ https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/86266/1/gbc20059.pdf https://doi.org/10.1002/gbc.20059 |
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ftleedsuniv:oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:86266 2023-05-15T17:57:08+02:00 Fire at high latitudes: Data-model comparisons and their consequences Kantzas, E. Lomas, M. Quegan, S. 2013-08-09 text https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/86266/ https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/86266/1/gbc20059.pdf https://doi.org/10.1002/gbc.20059 en eng American Geophysical Union https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/86266/1/gbc20059.pdf Kantzas, E., Lomas, M. and Quegan, S. (2013) Fire at high latitudes: Data-model comparisons and their consequences. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 27 (3). 677 - 691. ISSN 0886-6236 Article PeerReviewed 2013 ftleedsuniv https://doi.org/10.1002/gbc.20059 2023-01-30T21:32:46Z Fire is an endemic process at high latitudes, connected to a range of other land surface properties, such as land cover, biomass, and permafrost, and intimately linked to the carbon balance of the high-latitude land surface. Much of our current understanding of these links and their climate consequences is through land surface models, so it is important to ensure that for their credibility, these models should be consistent with available data. Over the vast panboreal region, a key source of information on fire is satellite data. Comparisons between satellite-based burned area data from the Global Fire Emissions Database and three dynamic vegetation models (LPJ-WM, CLM4CN, and SDGVM) indicate that all models fail to represent the observed spatial and temporal properties of the fire regime. Although the three dynamic vegetation models give comparable values of the boreal net biome production (NBP), fire emissions are found to differ by a factor 4 between the models, because of widely different estimates of burned area and because of different parameterizations of the fuel load and combustion process. Including a more realistic representation of the fire regime in the models shows that for northern high latitudes, (i) severe fire years do not coincide with source years or vice versa, (ii) the interannual variability of fire emissions does not significantly affect the interannual variability of NBP, and (iii) overall biomass values alter only slightly, but the spatial distribution of biomass exhibits changes. We also demonstrate that it is crucial to alter the current representations of fire occurrence and severity in land surface models if the links between permafrost and fire are to be captured, in particular, the dynamics of permafrost properties, such as active layer depth. This is especially important if models are to be used to predict the effects of a changing climate, because of the consequences of permafrost changes for greenhouse gas emissions, hydrology, and land cover. Article in Journal/Newspaper permafrost White Rose Research Online (Universities of Leeds, Sheffield & York) Global Biogeochemical Cycles 27 3 677 691 |
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Open Polar |
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White Rose Research Online (Universities of Leeds, Sheffield & York) |
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ftleedsuniv |
language |
English |
description |
Fire is an endemic process at high latitudes, connected to a range of other land surface properties, such as land cover, biomass, and permafrost, and intimately linked to the carbon balance of the high-latitude land surface. Much of our current understanding of these links and their climate consequences is through land surface models, so it is important to ensure that for their credibility, these models should be consistent with available data. Over the vast panboreal region, a key source of information on fire is satellite data. Comparisons between satellite-based burned area data from the Global Fire Emissions Database and three dynamic vegetation models (LPJ-WM, CLM4CN, and SDGVM) indicate that all models fail to represent the observed spatial and temporal properties of the fire regime. Although the three dynamic vegetation models give comparable values of the boreal net biome production (NBP), fire emissions are found to differ by a factor 4 between the models, because of widely different estimates of burned area and because of different parameterizations of the fuel load and combustion process. Including a more realistic representation of the fire regime in the models shows that for northern high latitudes, (i) severe fire years do not coincide with source years or vice versa, (ii) the interannual variability of fire emissions does not significantly affect the interannual variability of NBP, and (iii) overall biomass values alter only slightly, but the spatial distribution of biomass exhibits changes. We also demonstrate that it is crucial to alter the current representations of fire occurrence and severity in land surface models if the links between permafrost and fire are to be captured, in particular, the dynamics of permafrost properties, such as active layer depth. This is especially important if models are to be used to predict the effects of a changing climate, because of the consequences of permafrost changes for greenhouse gas emissions, hydrology, and land cover. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kantzas, E. Lomas, M. Quegan, S. |
spellingShingle |
Kantzas, E. Lomas, M. Quegan, S. Fire at high latitudes: Data-model comparisons and their consequences |
author_facet |
Kantzas, E. Lomas, M. Quegan, S. |
author_sort |
Kantzas, E. |
title |
Fire at high latitudes: Data-model comparisons and their consequences |
title_short |
Fire at high latitudes: Data-model comparisons and their consequences |
title_full |
Fire at high latitudes: Data-model comparisons and their consequences |
title_fullStr |
Fire at high latitudes: Data-model comparisons and their consequences |
title_full_unstemmed |
Fire at high latitudes: Data-model comparisons and their consequences |
title_sort |
fire at high latitudes: data-model comparisons and their consequences |
publisher |
American Geophysical Union |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/86266/ https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/86266/1/gbc20059.pdf https://doi.org/10.1002/gbc.20059 |
genre |
permafrost |
genre_facet |
permafrost |
op_relation |
https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/86266/1/gbc20059.pdf Kantzas, E., Lomas, M. and Quegan, S. (2013) Fire at high latitudes: Data-model comparisons and their consequences. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 27 (3). 677 - 691. ISSN 0886-6236 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/gbc.20059 |
container_title |
Global Biogeochemical Cycles |
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27 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
677 |
op_container_end_page |
691 |
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1766165511486308352 |