TY - JOUR
T1 - Patterns of Ecosystem Structure and Wildfire Carbon Combustion Across Six Ecoregions of the North American Boreal Forest
AU - Walker, Xanthe J.
AU - Baltzer, Jennifer L.
AU - Bourgeau-Chavez, Laura
AU - Day, Nicola J.
AU - Dieleman, Catherine M.
AU - Johnstone, Jill F.
AU - Kane, Evan S.
AU - Rogers, Brendan M.
AU - Turetsky, Merritt R.
AU - Veraverbeke, Sander
AU - Mack, Michelle C.
N1 - Funding Information:
This writing of this manuscript and synthesis of data was supported by funding the NASA Arctic Boreal and Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) Legacy Carbon grant NNX15AT71A awarded to MM. The original field studies were supported by funding in the United States from NSF DEB RAPID grant #1542150 to MM, NASA Rapid Response grant NNX15AD58G and NASA ABoVE grant NNX15AT83A to LB-C, NASA ABoVE grant NNX15AU56A to BR, SV, and MT, Joint Fire Science Program grant 05-1-2-06 to JJ, NSF grant 0445458 to MM, NSF support to the Bonanza Creek LTER (DEB-0423442); and in Canada from NSERC Discovery Grant funding to JJ and MT; Government of the Northwest Territories Cumulative Impacts Monitoring Program Funding project #170 to JB; NSERC PDFs to ND and CD; GNWT logistical and financial support through the Laurier-GNWT Partnership Agreement; Polar Knowledge Canada’s Northern Science Training Program funding awarded to Canadian field assistants; SV acknowledges Vidi grant support from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).
Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright © 2020 Walker, Baltzer, Bourgeau-Chavez, Day, Dieleman, Johnstone, Kane, Rogers, Turetsky, Veraverbeke and Mack.
PY - 2020/7/30
Y1 - 2020/7/30
N2 - Increases in fire frequency, extent, and severity are expected to strongly impact the structure and function of boreal forest ecosystems. An important function of the boreal forest is its ability to sequester and store carbon (C). Increasing disturbance from wildfires, emitting large amounts of C to the atmosphere, may create a positive feedback to climate warming. Variation in ecosystem structure and function throughout the boreal forest is important for predicting the effects of climate warming and changing fire regimes on C dynamics. In this study, we compiled data on soil characteristics, stand structure, pre-fire C pools, C loss from fire, and the potential drivers of these C metrics from 527 sites distributed across six ecoregions of North America’s western boreal forests. We assessed structural and functional differences between these fire-prone ecoregions using data from 417 recently burned sites (2004–2015) and estimated ecoregion-specific relationships between soil characteristics and depth from 167 of these sites plus an additional 110 sites (27 burned, 83 unburned). We found that northern boreal ecoregions were generally older, stored and emitted proportionally more belowground than aboveground C, and exhibited lower rates of C accumulation over time than southern ecoregions. We present ecoregion-specific estimates of depth-wise soil characteristics that are important for predicting C combustion from fire. As climate continues to warm and disturbance from wildfires increases, the C dynamics of these fire-prone ecoregions are likely to change with significant implications for the global C cycle and its feedbacks to climate change.
AB - Increases in fire frequency, extent, and severity are expected to strongly impact the structure and function of boreal forest ecosystems. An important function of the boreal forest is its ability to sequester and store carbon (C). Increasing disturbance from wildfires, emitting large amounts of C to the atmosphere, may create a positive feedback to climate warming. Variation in ecosystem structure and function throughout the boreal forest is important for predicting the effects of climate warming and changing fire regimes on C dynamics. In this study, we compiled data on soil characteristics, stand structure, pre-fire C pools, C loss from fire, and the potential drivers of these C metrics from 527 sites distributed across six ecoregions of North America’s western boreal forests. We assessed structural and functional differences between these fire-prone ecoregions using data from 417 recently burned sites (2004–2015) and estimated ecoregion-specific relationships between soil characteristics and depth from 167 of these sites plus an additional 110 sites (27 burned, 83 unburned). We found that northern boreal ecoregions were generally older, stored and emitted proportionally more belowground than aboveground C, and exhibited lower rates of C accumulation over time than southern ecoregions. We present ecoregion-specific estimates of depth-wise soil characteristics that are important for predicting C combustion from fire. As climate continues to warm and disturbance from wildfires increases, the C dynamics of these fire-prone ecoregions are likely to change with significant implications for the global C cycle and its feedbacks to climate change.
KW - black spruce
KW - boreal forest
KW - bulk density
KW - carbon
KW - fire
KW - jack pine
KW - organic soil
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U2 - 10.3389/ffgc.2020.00087
DO - 10.3389/ffgc.2020.00087
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85105922619
SN - 2624-893X
VL - 3
JO - Frontiers in Forests and Global Change
JF - Frontiers in Forests and Global Change
M1 - 87
ER -