A Meta-Regression of 18 Wildfire Chronosequences Reveals Key Environmental Drivers and Knowledge Gaps in the Boreal Nitrogen Balance.

ABSTRACT: Climate change has increased the size and frequency of wildfires across the boreal biome. Severe wildfires in boreal forests have been found to trigger shifts from evergreen to deciduous canopies, which has cascading effects on carbon and nitrogen cycling. Ecosystem productivity and carbon uptake in boreal forests are strongly linked with nitrogen, and Earth system models increasingly depend on our understanding of the nitrogen balance to predict post-fire carbon uptake. To investigate the post-fire boreal nitrogen balance, we combined a mass balance approach and literature synthesis to estimate rates of nitrogen accumulation and nitrogen inputs across a network of 18 boreal wildfire chronosequences that varied in both wildfire regime and post-fire canopy type, comprising 527 forest stands

SUBMITTER: Hupperts SF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12319645 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature