Unprecedented fire activity above the Arctic Circle linked to rising temperatures
Arctic fires can release large amounts of carbon from permafrost peatlands. Satellite observations reveal that fires burned ~4.7 million hectares in 2019 and 2020, accounting for 44% of the total burned area in the Siberian Arctic for the entire 1982–2020 period. The summer of 2020 was the warmest i...
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ftunivwagenin:oai:library.wur.nl:wurpubs/605667 2024-04-28T08:04:00+00:00 Unprecedented fire activity above the Arctic Circle linked to rising temperatures Descals, Adrià Gaveau, David L.A. Verger, Aleixandre Sheil, Douglas Naito, Daisuke Peñuelas, Josep 2022 application/pdf https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/unprecedented-fire-activity-above-the-arctic-circle-linked-to-ris https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abn9768 en eng https://edepot.wur.nl/582444 https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/unprecedented-fire-activity-above-the-arctic-circle-linked-to-ris doi:10.1126/science.abn9768 Wageningen University & Research Science 378 (2022) 6619 ISSN: 0036-8075 Life Science Article/Letter to editor 2022 ftunivwagenin https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abn9768 2024-04-03T14:47:52Z Arctic fires can release large amounts of carbon from permafrost peatlands. Satellite observations reveal that fires burned ~4.7 million hectares in 2019 and 2020, accounting for 44% of the total burned area in the Siberian Arctic for the entire 1982–2020 period. The summer of 2020 was the warmest in four decades, with fires burning an unprecedentedly large area of carbon-rich soils. We show that factors of fire associated with temperature have increased in recent decades and identified a near-exponential relationship between these factors and annual burned area. Large fires in the Arctic are likely to recur with climatic warming before mid-century, because the temperature trend is reaching a threshold in which small increases in temperature are associated with exponential increases in the area burned. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic permafrost Wageningen UR (University & Research Centre): Digital Library Science 378 6619 532 537 |
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Open Polar |
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Wageningen UR (University & Research Centre): Digital Library |
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ftunivwagenin |
language |
English |
topic |
Life Science |
spellingShingle |
Life Science Descals, Adrià Gaveau, David L.A. Verger, Aleixandre Sheil, Douglas Naito, Daisuke Peñuelas, Josep Unprecedented fire activity above the Arctic Circle linked to rising temperatures |
topic_facet |
Life Science |
description |
Arctic fires can release large amounts of carbon from permafrost peatlands. Satellite observations reveal that fires burned ~4.7 million hectares in 2019 and 2020, accounting for 44% of the total burned area in the Siberian Arctic for the entire 1982–2020 period. The summer of 2020 was the warmest in four decades, with fires burning an unprecedentedly large area of carbon-rich soils. We show that factors of fire associated with temperature have increased in recent decades and identified a near-exponential relationship between these factors and annual burned area. Large fires in the Arctic are likely to recur with climatic warming before mid-century, because the temperature trend is reaching a threshold in which small increases in temperature are associated with exponential increases in the area burned. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Descals, Adrià Gaveau, David L.A. Verger, Aleixandre Sheil, Douglas Naito, Daisuke Peñuelas, Josep |
author_facet |
Descals, Adrià Gaveau, David L.A. Verger, Aleixandre Sheil, Douglas Naito, Daisuke Peñuelas, Josep |
author_sort |
Descals, Adrià |
title |
Unprecedented fire activity above the Arctic Circle linked to rising temperatures |
title_short |
Unprecedented fire activity above the Arctic Circle linked to rising temperatures |
title_full |
Unprecedented fire activity above the Arctic Circle linked to rising temperatures |
title_fullStr |
Unprecedented fire activity above the Arctic Circle linked to rising temperatures |
title_full_unstemmed |
Unprecedented fire activity above the Arctic Circle linked to rising temperatures |
title_sort |
unprecedented fire activity above the arctic circle linked to rising temperatures |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/unprecedented-fire-activity-above-the-arctic-circle-linked-to-ris https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abn9768 |
genre |
Arctic Arctic permafrost |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic permafrost |
op_source |
Science 378 (2022) 6619 ISSN: 0036-8075 |
op_relation |
https://edepot.wur.nl/582444 https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/unprecedented-fire-activity-above-the-arctic-circle-linked-to-ris doi:10.1126/science.abn9768 |
op_rights |
Wageningen University & Research |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abn9768 |
container_title |
Science |
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378 |
container_issue |
6619 |
container_start_page |
532 |
op_container_end_page |
537 |
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1797574939713208320 |