Lightning as a major driver of recent large fire years in North American boreal forests

Changes in climate and fire regimes are transforming the boreal forest, the world’s largest biome. Boreal North America recently experienced two years with large burned area: 2014 in the Northwest Territories and 2015 in Alaska. Here we use climate, lightning, fire and vegetation data sets to assess...

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Vydáno v:Nature climate change Ročník 7; číslo 7; s. 529 - 534
Hlavní autoři: Veraverbeke, Sander, Rogers, Brendan M., Goulden, Mike L., Jandt, Randi R., Miller, Charles E., Wiggins, Elizabeth B., Randerson, James T.
Médium: Journal Article
Jazyk:angličtina
Vydáno: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.07.2017
Nature Publishing Group
Témata:
704/158/2454
704/158/2465
Annual variations
Area
Boreal ecosystems
Boreal forests
Burning
Carbon
Climate
Climate Change
Climate Change/Climate Change Impacts
Combustion
Dynamics
Environment
Environmental Law/Policy/Ecojustice
Fires
Forests
Ignition
Interannual variability
Lightning
Precipitation
Temperature effects
Treeline
Vegetation
North America
ISSN:1758-678X, 1758-6798
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Popis
Shrnutí:Changes in climate and fire regimes are transforming the boreal forest, the world’s largest biome. Boreal North America recently experienced two years with large burned area: 2014 in the Northwest Territories and 2015 in Alaska. Here we use climate, lightning, fire and vegetation data sets to assess the mechanisms contributing to large fire years. We find that lightning ignitions have increased since 1975, and that the 2014 and 2015 events coincided with a record number of lightning ignitions and exceptionally high levels of burning near the northern treeline. Lightning ignition explained more than 55% of the interannual variability in burned area, and was correlated with temperature and precipitation, which are projected to increase by mid-century. The analysis shows that lightning drives interannual and long-term ignition and burned area dynamics in boreal North America, and implies future ignition increases may increase carbon loss while accelerating the northward expansion of boreal forest. The boreal forest is being transformed by changes in its climate–fire regime. Analysis now shows that lightning drives year-to-year and long-term ignition and burned area trends in boreal North America.
Bibliografie:ObjectType-Article-1
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ISSN:1758-678X
1758-6798
DOI:10.1038/nclimate3329