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Global ecosystems and fire: multi‐model assessment of fire‐induced tree‐cover and carbon storage reduction

  • In this study, we use simulations from seven global vegetation models to provide the first multi‐model estimate of fire impacts on global tree cover and the carbon cycle under current climate and anthropogenic land use conditions, averaged for the years 2001–2012. Fire globally reduces the tree covered area and vegetation carbon storage by 10%. Regionally, the effects are much stronger, up to 20% for certain latitudinal bands, and 17% in savanna regions. Global fire effects on total carbon storage and carbon turnover times are lower with the effect on gross primary productivity (GPP) close to 0. We find the strongest impacts of fire in savanna regions. Climatic conditions in regions with the highest burned area differ from regions with highest absolute fire impact, which are characterized by higher precipitation. Our estimates of fire‐induced vegetation change are lower than previous studies. We attribute these differences to different definitions of vegetation change and effects of anthropogenic land use, which were not considered in previous studies and decreases the impact of fire on tree cover. Accounting for fires significantly improves the spatial patterns of simulated tree cover, which demonstrates the need to represent fire in dynamic vegetation models. Based upon comparisons between models and observations, process understanding and representation in models, we assess a higher confidence in the fire impact on tree cover and vegetation carbon compared to GPP, total carbon storage and turnover times. We have higher confidence in the spatial patterns compared to the global totals of the simulated fire impact. As we used an ensemble of state‐of‐the‐art fire models, including effects of land use and the ensemble median or mean compares better to observational datasets than any individual model, we consider the here presented results to be the current best estimate of global fire effects on ecosystems.

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Author:Gitta Lasslop, Stijn Hantson, Sandy P. HarrisonORCiDGND, Dominique Bachelet, Chantelle Burton, Matthias Forkel, Matthew ForrestORCiD, Fang Li, Joe R. Melton, Chao Yue, Sally Archibald, Simon ScheiterORCiDGND, Almut ArnethORCiDGND, Thomas HicklerORCiD, Stephen Sitch
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-564759
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15160
ISSN:1365-2486
ISSN:1354-1013
Parent Title (English):Global change biology
Publisher:Wiley-Blackwell
Place of publication:Oxford [u.a.]
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2020/06/27
Date of first Publication:2020/05/14
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2020/11/11
Tag:global fire modelling; terrestrial carbon cycle; vegetation modelling; wildfires
Volume:26
Issue:9
Page Number:15
First Page:5027
Last Page:5041
HeBIS-PPN:477658156
Institutes:Geowissenschaften / Geographie / Geowissenschaften
Angeschlossene und kooperierende Institutionen / Senckenbergische Naturforschende Gesellschaft
Fachübergreifende Einrichtungen / Biodiversität und Klima Forschungszentrum (BiK-F)
Dewey Decimal Classification:5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 55 Geowissenschaften, Geologie / 550 Geowissenschaften
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Licence (English):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung-Nicht kommerziell 4.0