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Spatial variations in immediate greenhouse gases and aerosol emissions and resulting radiative forcing from wildfires in interior Alaska

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Abstract

Boreal fires can cool the climate; however, this conclusion came from individual fires and may not represent the whole story. We hypothesize that the climatic impact of boreal fires depends on local landscape heterogeneity such as burn severity, prefire vegetation type, and soil properties. To test this hypothesis, spatially explicit emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and aerosols and their resulting radiative forcing are required as an important and necessary component towards a full assessment. In this study, we integrated remote sensing (Landsat and MODIS) and models (carbon consumption model, emission factors model, and radiative forcing model) to calculate the carbon consumption, GHGs and aerosol emissions, and their radiative forcing of 2001–2010 fires at 30 m resolution in the Yukon River Basin of Alaska. Total carbon consumption showed significant spatial variation, with a mean of 2,615 g C m−2 and a standard deviation of 2,589 g C m−2. The carbon consumption led to different amounts of GHGs and aerosol emissions, ranging from 593.26 Tg (CO2) to 0.16 Tg (N2O). When converted to equivalent CO2 based on global warming potential metric, the maximum 20 years equivalent CO2 was black carbon (713.77 Tg), and the lowest 20 years equivalent CO2 was organic carbon (−583.13 Tg). The resulting radiative forcing also showed significant spatial variation: CO2, CH4, and N2O can cause a 20-year mean radiative forcing of 7.41 W m−2 with a standard deviation of 2.87 W m−2. This emission forcing heterogeneity indicates that different boreal fires have different climatic impacts. When considering the spatial variation of other forcings, such as surface shortwave forcing, we may conclude that some boreal fires, especially boreal deciduous fires, can warm the climate.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the U.S. Geological Survey Research and Development Program. The authors greatly thank Bettina Ohse for providing white spruce probability map, Dr. Lei Ji and Dr. Bruce Wylie for sharing the aboveground biomass data, Dr. Terry Tan for advice on soil carbon, Dr. Jeffery Eidenshink for internally reviewing the manuscript, and Mr. Thomas Adamson for revising the English. Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ASRC Federal Inuteq, Contractor to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center, 47914 252nd Street, Sioux Falls, SD, 57198, USA

    Shengli Huang & Suming Jin

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, 99164, USA

    Heping Liu

  3. Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies (SGT), Inc, Contractor to the USGS EROS Center, Sioux Falls, SD, 57198, USA

    Devendra Dahal

  4. California State University Monterey Bay, Seaside, CA, 93955, USA

    Shuang Li

  5. USGS EROS Center, 47914 252nd Street, Sioux Falls, SD, 57198, USA

    Shuguang Liu

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  1. Shengli Huang
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  3. Devendra Dahal
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  4. Suming Jin
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Correspondence to Shuguang Liu.

Additional information

Shengli Huang and Suming Jin’s work was performed under USGS contract G13PC00028.

Devendra Dahal’s work was performed under USGS contract G10PC00044.

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Huang, S., Liu, H., Dahal, D. et al. Spatial variations in immediate greenhouse gases and aerosol emissions and resulting radiative forcing from wildfires in interior Alaska. Theor Appl Climatol 123, 581–592 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-015-1379-0

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