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Study: Alaskan boreal forest fires release more carbon than the trees can absorb
https://news.illinois.edu/blog/view/6367/265408[font face=Serif][font size=5]Study: Alaskan boreal forest fires release more carbon than the trees can absorb[/font]
Oct 19, 2015 9:30 am by Diana Yates
[font size=3]CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- A new analysis of fire activity in Alaska's Yukon Flats finds that so many forest fires are occurring there that the area has become a net exporter of carbon to the atmosphere. This is worrisome, the researchers say, because arctic and subarctic boreal forests like those of the Yukon Flats contain roughly one-third of the Earth's terrestrial carbon stores.
…
"Having these data allowed us to simulate not only recent decades, but the entire past millennium of carbon cycling," said Ryan Kelly, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Illinois who conducted the study with Feng Sheng Hu, a U. of I. professor of plant biology and of geology.
"Our model confirms our hypothesis that the recent increase in fire frequency in our study region has caused massive carbon losses to the atmosphere. About 12 percent of the total stored carbon has been lost in the last half century," said Kelly, who now is a data scientist and modeler for Neptune and Company, Inc.
"Most studies of carbon cycling in boreal forests have been motivated by the fact that there's just an enormous amount of carbon in these high-latitude ecosystems," Hu said. "Up to 30 percent of the earth's terrestrial carbon is in that system. And, simultaneously, this region is warming up faster than any other parts of the world."
…[/font][/font]
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/NCLIMATE2832Oct 19, 2015 9:30 am by Diana Yates
[font size=3]CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- A new analysis of fire activity in Alaska's Yukon Flats finds that so many forest fires are occurring there that the area has become a net exporter of carbon to the atmosphere. This is worrisome, the researchers say, because arctic and subarctic boreal forests like those of the Yukon Flats contain roughly one-third of the Earth's terrestrial carbon stores.
…
"Having these data allowed us to simulate not only recent decades, but the entire past millennium of carbon cycling," said Ryan Kelly, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Illinois who conducted the study with Feng Sheng Hu, a U. of I. professor of plant biology and of geology.
"Our model confirms our hypothesis that the recent increase in fire frequency in our study region has caused massive carbon losses to the atmosphere. About 12 percent of the total stored carbon has been lost in the last half century," said Kelly, who now is a data scientist and modeler for Neptune and Company, Inc.
"Most studies of carbon cycling in boreal forests have been motivated by the fact that there's just an enormous amount of carbon in these high-latitude ecosystems," Hu said. "Up to 30 percent of the earth's terrestrial carbon is in that system. And, simultaneously, this region is warming up faster than any other parts of the world."
…[/font][/font]