Evidence and Implications of Frequent Fires in Ancient Shrub Tundra
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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ftosti:oai:osti.gov:945153 2023-07-30T04:01:27+02:00 Evidence and Implications of Frequent Fires in Ancient Shrub Tundra Higuera, P E Brubaker, L B Anderson, P M Brown, T A Kennedy, A T Hu, F S 2021-05-04 application/pdf http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/945153 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/945153 unknown http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/945153 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/945153 58 GEOSCIENCES 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES ABUNDANCE CARBON CHARCOAL ECOSYSTEMS FORESTS LAKES MOISTURE PLANTS POLLEN SEDIMENTS SHRUBS TUNDRA 2021 ftosti 2023-07-11T08:46:43Z 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 birchdominated 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 paleo-fires 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 21st century and beyond. Increased tundra burning will have broad impacts on physical and biological systems as well as land-atmosphere interactions in the Arctic, including the potential to release stored organic carbon to the atmosphere. Other/Unknown Material Arctic Tundra Alaska SciTec Connect (Office of Scientific and Technical Information - OSTI, U.S. Department of Energy) Arctic |
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Open Polar |
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SciTec Connect (Office of Scientific and Technical Information - OSTI, U.S. Department of Energy) |
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ftosti |
language |
unknown |
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58 GEOSCIENCES 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES ABUNDANCE CARBON CHARCOAL ECOSYSTEMS FORESTS LAKES MOISTURE PLANTS POLLEN SEDIMENTS SHRUBS TUNDRA |
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58 GEOSCIENCES 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES ABUNDANCE CARBON CHARCOAL ECOSYSTEMS FORESTS LAKES MOISTURE PLANTS POLLEN SEDIMENTS SHRUBS TUNDRA Higuera, P E Brubaker, L B Anderson, P M Brown, T A Kennedy, A T Hu, F S Evidence and Implications of Frequent Fires in Ancient Shrub Tundra |
topic_facet |
58 GEOSCIENCES 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES ABUNDANCE CARBON CHARCOAL ECOSYSTEMS FORESTS LAKES MOISTURE PLANTS POLLEN SEDIMENTS SHRUBS TUNDRA |
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 birchdominated 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 paleo-fires 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 21st century and beyond. Increased tundra burning will have broad impacts on physical and biological systems as well as land-atmosphere interactions in the Arctic, including the potential to release stored organic carbon to the atmosphere. |
author |
Higuera, P E Brubaker, L B Anderson, P M Brown, T A Kennedy, A T Hu, F S |
author_facet |
Higuera, P E Brubaker, L B Anderson, P M Brown, T A Kennedy, A T Hu, F S |
author_sort |
Higuera, P E |
title |
Evidence and Implications of Frequent Fires in Ancient Shrub Tundra |
title_short |
Evidence and Implications of Frequent Fires in Ancient Shrub Tundra |
title_full |
Evidence and Implications of Frequent Fires in Ancient Shrub Tundra |
title_fullStr |
Evidence and Implications of Frequent Fires in Ancient Shrub Tundra |
title_full_unstemmed |
Evidence and Implications of Frequent Fires in Ancient Shrub Tundra |
title_sort |
evidence and implications of frequent fires in ancient shrub tundra |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/945153 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/945153 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Tundra Alaska |
genre_facet |
Arctic Tundra Alaska |
op_relation |
http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/945153 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/945153 |
_version_ |
1772812192296468480 |