Continental-Scale Partitioning of Fire Emissions During the 1997 to 2001 El Niño/La Niña Period

Abstract

During the 1997 to 1998 El Niño, drought conditions triggered widespread increases in fire activity, releasing CH 4 and CO 2 to the atmosphere. We evaluated the contribution of fires from different continents to variability in these greenhouse gases from 1997 to 2001, using satellite-based estimates of fire activity, biogeochemical modeling, and an inverse analysis of atmospheric CO anomalies. During the 1997 to 1998 El Niño, the fire emissions anomaly was 2.1 ± 0.8 petagrams of carbon, or 66 ± 24% of the CO 2 growth rate anomaly. The main contributors were Southeast Asia (60%), Central and South America (30%), and boreal regions of Eurasia and North America (10%).

Predictability of biomass burning in response to climate changes

“…There are potentially feedbacks from fire to climate, through pyrogenic emission of trace gases and aerosol precursors that influence atmospheric chemistry and radiative balance, as well as the feedback through CO 2 emission to the global carbon cycle [Galanter et al, 2000;van der Werf et al, 2004]. Interactions between climate, vegetation and fire regimes are complicated by the influence of human activities, both through direct interventions (ignition or suppression) and as a by-product of human activities leading to landscape fragmentation and/or fuel reduction [Lavorel et al, 2007].…”

Sustainability science from space: Quantifying forest disturbance and land-use dynamics in the Amazon

“…Refined estimates of biomass loss would be a boon to process-based models of fire emissions from both deforestation and forest degradation (2). In addition, a better understanding of carbon dynamics could shape carbon payment incentives for forest management.…”

“…T ropical deforestation is occurring at unprecedented rates, contributing as much as a fifth of annual global carbon emissions and imparting significant impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem function, livelihoods, and climate (1)(2)(3). Selective logging, removal of 1-25 canopy trees per hectare with associated levels of harvesting damage, is predicted to greatly exceed tropical deforestation in extent worldwide, but it remains largely unquantified (4).…”

Effects of vegetation zones and climatic changes on fire-induced atmospheric carbon emissions: a model based on paleodata

“…Thus, any reduction of carbon sources due to the depletion of vegetation in Africa would be compensated by increases in South America (Mayle and Beerling 2004). Because biomass combustion is one of the most important elements in carbon flux processes (Seiler and Crutzen 1980;van der Werf et al 2004), we hypothesise that millennial changes in fire activity might influence the global carbon cycle and thus the climate system itself (Carcaillet et al 2002).…”

“…Moreover, Patra et al (2005) have shown that natural and anthropogenic biomass burning constitute the major component of the land-atmosphere carbon flux. Current global warming could increase the frequency of fire (Stocks et al 1998;van der Werf et al 2004;Flannigan et al 2005), so adding further atmospheric CO 2 into the global carbon cycle, and so affect the climate in a system of positive feedbacks (Bowman et al 2009).…”