Fire decline in dry tropical ecosystems enhances decadal land carbon sink

Yin, Yi; Bloom, A. Anthony; Worden, J.; Saatchi, Sassan; Yang, Yan; Williams, Mathew; Liu, Junjie; Jiang, Zhe; Worden, H. M.; Bowman, K. W.; Frankenberg, Christian; Schimel, David

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-15852-2

Cited by 50 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…This figure suggests that C emissions in Mexico during the 2011-2018 period rose its C emissions between 1.5 and 3 times. This increment is much higher than the global mean estimate reported by Akagi et al (2011) and that estimated for Mexico based on a global modeling (Yin et al, 2020). In consequence, we consider that Mexican C emissions derived from fires in the country are accelerating over the global standard, possibly as a result of climate change (Pechony & Shindell, 2010) and/or reduction to the budget for mitigating the impacts of fires.…”

Section: Importance Of Mexican Firesmentioning

confidence: 82%

Fires Represent an Important Source of Carbon Emissions in Mexico

Corona-Núñez

Campo

2020

Global Biogeochemical Cycles

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Biomass burning, including fires, has been identified as the largest source of primary fine carbonaceous particles in the troposphere and one of the major drivers of global carbon (C) cycle, cloud properties, and climate. Most of the global C emissions happen in the Pantropic region. Modeling estimates suggest an increase in Mexican fire frequencies, intensity, and C emission to the atmosphere. However, no study has combined field and satellite data to estimate C emissions by fires for any tropical country. Here, we present an approach to estimate the spatiotemporal variability of fires and its total C emissions in Mexico with the associated climate that combines national fire inventories with remote sensing. We provide evidence that tropical ecosystems, particularly tropical forests at Yucatan Peninsula, Pacific Coast, and Gulf of Mexico, provide the largest C emissions with high fire densities. We found evidence to contrast the relationships of the interannual and intra-annual variability of C emissions with immediate and lagged climate effects such as El Niño and La Niña events. Data also indicate that C emissions from fires are up to 11 times higher than those from deforestation and account 19% of the total National CO 2 emissions and 5% of the total Pantropical C emissions. Because fires are related to climate change, we encourage future studies to focus on climate fire feedbacks for implementing adequate climate mitigation strategies.

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Section: Importance Of Mexican Firesmentioning

confidence: 82%

Fires Represent an Important Source of Carbon Emissions in Mexico

Corona-Núñez

Campo

2020

Global Biogeochemical Cycles

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“…An example of the use of satellite data for constraining carbon balance and its sensitivity to temperature and TWS and other carbon processes is shown in Figure 17 for South America. For this analysis, satellite derived estimates of NBE, SIF, CO, TWS, LAI, fire emissions, and temperature, as discussed in previous sections, are assimilated into the Carbon Data Model Framework (CARDAMOM; e.g., Bloom et al., 2015; Y. Yin et al., 2020), which is similar in structure to Figure 16. 2020.…”

Section: Quantifying Carbon and Water Processes And Reservoirs By Commentioning

confidence: 99%

Satellite Observations of the Tropical Terrestrial Carbon Balance and Interactions With the Water Cycle During the 21st Century

Worden

Saatchi

Keller

et al. 2021

Reviews of Geophysics

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A constellation of satellites is now in orbit providing information about terrestrial carbon and water storage and fluxes. These combined observations show that the tropical biosphere has changed significantly in the last 2 decades from the combined effects of climate variability and land use. Large areas of forest have been cleared in both wet and dry forests, increasing the source of carbon to the atmosphere. Concomitantly, tropical fire emissions have declined, at least until 2016, from changes in land‐use practices and rainfall, increasing the net carbon sink. Measurements of carbon stocks and fluxes from disturbance and recovery and of vegetation photosynthesis show significant regional variability of net biosphere exchange and gross primary productivity across the tropics and are tied to seasonal and interannual changes in water fluxes and storage. Comparison of satellite based estimates of evapotranspiration, photosynthesis, and the deuterium content of water vapor with patterns of total water storage and rainfall demonstrate the presence of vegetation‐atmosphere interactions and feedback mechanisms across tropical forests. However, these observations of stocks, fluxes and inferred interactions between them do not point unambiguously to either positive or negative feedbacks in carbon and water exchanges. These ambiguities highlight the need for assimilation of these new measurements with Earth System models for a consistent assessment of process interactions, along with focused field campaigns that integrate ground, aircraft and satellite measurements, to quantify the controlling carbon and water processes and their feedback mechanisms.

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“…The rising atmospheric CO 2 concentrations can enhance plant photosynthesis (“CO 2 fertilization”) and thus may increase B [ 15 – 18 ], although the CO 2 response of carbon sequestration in mature forests may be insignificant [ 19 ]. Volcanic eruption and large-scale fire events are also important components that regulate B, both locally and globally [ 20 – 24 ]. Climate conditions like temperature and precipitation have multiple effects on the land carbon uptake.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decadal variability in land carbon sink efficiency

Zhu

Ciais

Bastos

et al. 2021

Carbon Balance Manage

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Background The climate mitigation target of limiting the temperature increase below 2 °C above the pre-industrial levels requires the efforts from all countries. Tracking the trajectory of the land carbon sink efficiency is thus crucial to evaluate the nationally determined contributions (NDCs). Here, we define the instantaneous land sink efficiency as the ratio of natural land carbon sinks to emissions from fossil fuel and land-use and land-cover change with a value of 1 indicating carbon neutrality to track its temporal dynamics in the past decades. Results Land sink efficiency has been decreasing during 1957–1990 because of the increased emissions from fossil fuel. After the effect of the Mt. Pinatubo eruption diminished (after 1994), the land sink efficiency firstly increased before 2009 and then began to decrease again after 2009. This reversal around 2009 is mostly attributed to changes in land sinks in tropical regions in response to climate variations. Conclusions The decreasing trend of land sink efficiency in recent years reveals greater challenges in climate change mitigation, and that climate impacts on land carbon sinks must be accurately quantified to assess the effectiveness of regional scale climate mitigation policies.

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Fire decline in dry tropical ecosystems enhances decadal land carbon sink

Cited by 50 publications

References 52 publications

Fires Represent an Important Source of Carbon Emissions in Mexico

Fires Represent an Important Source of Carbon Emissions in Mexico

Satellite Observations of the Tropical Terrestrial Carbon Balance and Interactions With the Water Cycle During the 21st Century

Decadal variability in land carbon sink efficiency

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