Recent massive expansion of wildfire and its impact on active layer over pan-Arctic permafrost

Abstract

Wildfire is recognized as an increasing threat to southern boreal forest and permafrost beneath it while less occurring over the cold continuous permafrost before. However, we show continuous permafrost was a major contribution to the wildfire expansion in pan-Arctic over the last two decades. The expansion rate of burned area over continuous permafrost was 0.9Mha decade-1, in contrast to a decreasing trend (-0.5Mha decade-1) over the entire permafrost areas. Burned area has been rapidly growing in the north of Arctic Circle in particular, where the total burned area in the major fire seasons during 2011-2020 nearly doubled that during 2001-2010. The wildfire expansion is closely linked to increased soil moisture deficit, considering wildfires there combust more than 90% of belowground fuel. Continuous permafrost experiences more severe fire-induced degradation. Active layer thickening following wildfire over continuous permafrost lasts more than three decades to reach a maximum of more than triple the pre-fire thickness. These new findings highlight the massive expansion of wildfires over continuous permafrost, which can dramatically modify ecological processes, disturb organic carbon stock, and thus accelerate the positive feedback between permafrost degradation and climate warming.