Strong cooling induced by stand-replacing fires through albedo in Siberian larch forests.

ABSTRACT: The Siberian larch forests, taking up about a fifth of the global boreal biome, are different from the North American boreal forests in that they generally do not undergo a secondary succession. While wildfires in the boreal forests in North America have been shown to exert a cooling effect on the climate system through a sharp increase in surface albedo associated with canopy removal and species composition change during succession, the magnitude of the surface forcing resulting from fire-induced albedo change and its longevity in Siberia have not been previously quantified. Here we show that in contrast to previous expectations, stand-replacing fires exert a strong cooling effect similar in magnitude to that in North America. This cooling effect is attributable to the increase in surface

SUBMITTER: Chen D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5859174 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature