Fuel reduction burning mitigates wildfire effects on forest carbon and greenhouse gas emission

Volkova, Liubov; Meyer, C. P.; Murphy, Simon; Fairman, Thomas A.; Reisen, Fabienne; Weston, Christopher J.

doi:10.1071/wf14009

Cited by 52 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 28 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Recently Volkova et al (2014) (2014) who recently measured trace gas emissions factors with an FTIR system during prescribed fires in temperate forests in New South Wales, Australia. Our CO 2 emissions factors (reported per unit of dry fuel consumed) are slightly smaller for heading fires (∼ 1.5 %) and are larger for flanking (∼ 5 %) and backing fires (∼ 6 %) compared to Paton-Walsh et al (2014).…”

Section: Comparison With Previous Field and Laboratory Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Greenhouse gas emissions from laboratory-scale fires in wildland fuels depend on fire spread mode and phase of combustion

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Free-burning experimental fires were conducted in a wind tunnel to explore the role of ignition type and thus fire spread mode on the resulting emissions profile from combustion of fine (< 6 mm in diameter) Eucalyptus litter fuels. Fires were burnt spreading with the wind (heading fire), perpendicular to the wind (flanking fire) and against the wind (backing fire). Greenhouse gas compounds (i.e. CO 2 , CH 4 and N 2 O) and CO were quantified using off-axis integratedcavity-output spectroscopy. Emissions factors calculated using a carbon mass balance technique (along with statistical testing) showed that most of the carbon was emitted as CO 2 , with heading fires emitting 17 % more CO 2 than flanking and 9.5 % more CO 2 than backing fires, and about twice as much CO as flanking and backing fires. Heading fires had less than half as much carbon remaining in combustion residues. Statistically significant differences in CH 4 and N 2 O emissions factors were not found with respect to fire spread mode. Emissions factors calculated per unit of dry fuel consumed showed that combustion phase (i.e. flaming or smouldering) had a statistically significant impact, with CO and N 2 O emissions increasing during smouldering combustion and CO 2 emissions decreasing. Findings on the equivalence of different emissions factor reporting methods are discussed along with the impact of our results for emissions accounting and potential sampling biases associated with our work. The primary implication of this study is that prescribed fire practices could be modified to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from forests by judicial use of ignition methods to induce flanking and backing fires over heading fires.

show abstract

Section: Comparison With Previous Field and Laboratory Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Greenhouse gas emissions from laboratory-scale fires in wildland fuels depend on fire spread mode and phase of combustion

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…25 Most of what is known about the VOC emissions from Australian temperate forest fires to date comes from opportunistic measurements of bushfire plumes impacting measurement sites such as the University of Wollongong (Paton-Walsh et al, 2005Rea et al, 2016) or the Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station (Lawson et al, 2015) or captured from space using satellite sensors (Young and Paton-Walsh, 2011;Glatthor et al, 2013). Dedicated field and laboratory measurement campaigns have mostly focused on greenhouse gases (Hurst et al, 1996;Volkova et al, 2014;Possell et al, 2015;Surawski et al, 2015) for CO 2 and CO for several fuel classes combusted in a mass-loss calorimeter and estimated the total fraction of fuel carbon that would be emitted as CH 4 , particulates and non-methane hydrocarbons using a carbon mass balance approach. The only whole fire emission factors available are those from Hurst et al (1996), who sampled smoke plumes from fires in the greater Sydney region from an aircraft and reported emission factors for CO 2 , CO and CH 4 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emissions of trace gases from Australian temperate forest fires: emission factors and dependence on modified combustion efficiency

Guérette¹,

Paton-Walsh²,

Desservettaz³

et al. 2017

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. We characterised trace gas emissions from Australian temperate forest fires through a mixture of in situ open-path FTIR measurements spectroscopy and selective ion flow tube mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS) and White cell FTIR spectroscopy of grab samples. We report emission factors for a total of 25 trace gas species measured in smoke from nine prescribed fires.We find significant dependence on modified combustion efficiency (MCE) for some species, although regional differences indicate that the use of MCE as a proxy may be limited. We also find that the fire-integrated MCE values derived from our in 5 situ on-the-ground open-path measurements are not significantly different from those reported for airborne measurements of smoke from fires in the same ecosystem. We then compare our average emission factors to those measured for fires in North American temperate ecosystems and for fires in Australian savanna and find that, although emission factors of some species agree within 20%, others differ by a factor of 2 or more. This indicates that the use of ecosystem-specific emission factors is warranted for applications involving emissions from Australian forest fires.

show abstract

“…This shows that FullCAM input parameters need further calibration to adequately represent dead standing and forest floor debris pools. Because these dead standing and debris pools make up the majority of biomass consumed in fire, e.g., [25,34] we do not recommend using FullCAM to model greenhouse gas emissions from forest fires.…”

Section: Fullcam Does Not Adequately Predict Dead Standing and Forestmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While understorey accounted for a minor proportion of AGC in studied forests (about 3%), it is an important carbon pool that can contribute between 2% and 28% to forest fire emissions [20,25]. The developed allometric equation for understorey trees will contribute to more accurate estimates of this small but significant carbon pool and improve our understanding of understorey contribution to forest carbon cycling and ecosystem productivity [35].…”

Section: Importance Of Allometric Equations For Small Treesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Overstorey represents the biggest aboveground carbon pool in open Eucalyptus forests, accounting for 50%-70% of total AGB [20] and as such overstorey trees are usually the focus of destructively sampled biomass studies [21][22][23]. There are very few accurate estimates of other AGB components such as understorey, which make up between 8% and 33% of total AGB [20,24], and are an important carbon pool contributing to forest fire emissions [25]. Developing allometric equations from destructively sampled understorey trees is not well described in the literature and often surrogates are used to determine the carbon content of small trees [26], contributing to additional sources of uncertainty in estimation of carbon stock and greenhouse gases emission from temperate forests.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Empirical Estimates of Aboveground Carbon in Open Eucalyptus Forests of South-Eastern Australia and Its Potential Implication for National Carbon Accounting

Volkova

Murphy

et al. 2015

Forests

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:The aboveground carbon (AGC) storage of open Eucalyptus forests is unknown yet they are estimated to account for almost 25% of all Australian forests and about 60% of forests in Victoria. In this study we provide the best possible estimates of total AGC including tree biomass derived from destructive biomass sampling across 23 study plots established in open Eucalyptus forests in Victoria. The field estimates of AGC were then used for calibration of Australia's National Carbon Accounting Model, FullCAM. The study aimed to develop a transparent and defendable method to estimate AGC for one of the most common Australian forests. Our calibrations showed that the 8.3 M ha of open Eucalyptus forests of SE Australia sequester at least 139 Mt C more than default FullCAM predictions. Because most of these forests are not subject to human-induced emission such as harvesting, only emissions and stock changes from a small area of these forests is reported in national inventories and international greenhouse emissions agreements. Concern for climate change and emission reduction will inevitably OPEN ACCESSForests 2015, 6 3396 require land managers to come up with defendable methods of estimating forest carbon stocks and changes in all forest types; here we show how FullCAM can be further developed for this purpose.

show abstract

Fuel reduction burning mitigates wildfire effects on forest carbon and greenhouse gas emission

Cited by 52 publications

References 28 publications

Greenhouse gas emissions from laboratory-scale fires in wildland fuels depend on fire spread mode and phase of combustion

Greenhouse gas emissions from laboratory-scale fires in wildland fuels depend on fire spread mode and phase of combustion

Emissions of trace gases from Australian temperate forest fires: emission factors and dependence on modified combustion efficiency

Empirical Estimates of Aboveground Carbon in Open Eucalyptus Forests of South-Eastern Australia and Its Potential Implication for National Carbon Accounting

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About