Global rise in forest fire emissions linked to climate change in the extratropics
University of East Anglia · Tyndall Centre · +8 more institutions
Abstract
Climate change increases fire-favorable weather in forests, but fire trends are also affected by multiple other controlling factors that are difficult to untangle. We use machine learning to systematically group forest ecoregions into 12 global forest pyromes, with each showing distinct sensitivities to climatic, human, and vegetation controls. This delineation revealed that rapidly increasing forest fire emissions in extratropical pyromes, linked to climate change, offset declining emissions in tropical pyromes during 2001 to 2023. Annual emissions tripled in one extratropical pyrome due to increases in fire-favorable weather, compounded by increased forest cover and productivity. This contributed to a 60%…
Citation impact
- FWCI
- 39.27
- Percentile
- 100%
- References
- 158
Authors
12Topics & keywords
- Climate change
- Environmental science
- Extratropical cyclone
- Greenhouse gas
- Disturbance (geology)
- Climatology
- Agroforestry
- Geography
- Climate action
Funding
- NSNational Science FoundationAwards: OAI-2019762, 2019762
- ESEuropean Space AgencyAward: 4000126706/19/I-NB
- ECEuropean CommissionAwards: 101003890, H2020, 776810
- FDFundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São PauloAwards: 2019/, 2019/25701-8, 2020/15230-5, 2023/03206-0
- H2Horizon 2020 Framework ProgrammeAwards: 776810, EC H2020, 101003890
- NENatural Environment Research CouncilAwards: NE/V01417X/1, NE/T003553/1, NE/V01417X/, NE/ V01417X/1