Sign on

SAO/NASA ADS Astronomy Abstract Service


· Find Similar Abstracts (with default settings below)
· Electronic Refereed Journal Article (HTML)
· References in the article
· Citations to the Article (82) (Citation History)
· Refereed Citations to the Article
· Reads History
·
· Translate This Page
Title:
Carbon loss from an unprecedented Arctic tundra wildfire
Authors:
Mack, Michelle C.; Bret-Harte, M. Syndonia; Hollingsworth, Teresa N.; Jandt, Randi R.; Schuur, Edward A. G.; Shaver, Gaius R.; Verbyla, David L.
Affiliation:
AA(Department of Biology, University of Florida, PO Box 118525, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA), AB(Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, PO Box 757000, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775, USA), AC(Boreal Ecology Cooperative Research Unit, PNW Research Station USDA Forest Service, PO Box 756780, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775, USA), AD(Alaska Fire Service, Bureau of Land Management, PO Box 35005, Fort Wainwright, Alaska 99703, USA), AE(Department of Biology, University of Florida, PO Box 118525, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA), AF(The Ecosystems Center, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, USA), AG(Department of Forest Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks, PO Box 757200, Fairbanks, Alaska, USA)
Publication:
Nature, Volume 475, Issue 7357, pp. 489-492 (2011). (Nature Homepage)
Publication Date:
07/2011
Origin:
NATURE
Abstract Copyright:
(c) 2011: Nature
DOI:
10.1038/nature10283
Bibliographic Code:
2011Natur.475..489M

Abstract

Arctic tundra soils store large amounts of carbon (C) in organic soil layers hundreds to thousands of years old that insulate, and in some cases maintain, permafrost soils. Fire has been largely absent from most of this biome since the early Holocene epoch, but its frequency and extent are increasing, probably in response to climate warming. The effect of fires on the C balance of tundra landscapes, however, remains largely unknown. The Anaktuvuk River fire in 2007 burned 1,039 square kilometres of Alaska's Arctic slope, making it the largest fire on record for the tundra biome and doubling the cumulative area burned since 1950 (ref. 5). Here we report that tundra ecosystems lost 2,016+/-435gCm-2 in the fire, an amount two orders of magnitude larger than annual net C exchange in undisturbed tundra. Sixty per cent of this C loss was from soil organic matter, and radiocarbon dating of residual soil layers revealed that the maximum age of soil C lost was 50 years. Scaled to the entire burned area, the fire released approximately 2.1teragrams of C to the atmosphere, an amount similar in magnitude to the annual net C sink for the entire Arctic tundra biome averaged over the last quarter of the twentieth century. The magnitude of ecosystem C lost by fire, relative to both ecosystem and biome-scale fluxes, demonstrates that a climate-driven increase in tundra fire disturbance may represent a positive feedback, potentially offsetting Arctic greening and influencing the net C balance of the tundra biome.
Bibtex entry for this abstract   Preferred format for this abstract (see Preferences)


Find Similar Abstracts:

Use: Authors
Title
Abstract Text
Return: Query Results Return    items starting with number
Query Form
Database: Astronomy
Physics
arXiv e-prints