Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Wildfire impacts on the carbon budget of a managed Nordic boreal forest

Kelly, Julia LU ; Kljun, Natascha LU orcid ; Cai, Zhanzhang LU ; Doerr, Stefan H. ; Donofrio, Claudio LU orcid ; Holst, Thomas LU ; Lehner, Irene LU ; Lindroth, Anders LU ; Thapa, Shangharsha LU orcid and Vestin, Patrik LU orcid , et al. (2024) In Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 351.
Abstract
Wildfire is one of the most important disturbances affecting boreal forests. Most previous research on boreal forest fires has occurred in North American forests which have different fire regimes, tree species and are less intensively managed than their Eurasian counterparts. Recent extreme fire years have highlighted the vulnerability of the Nordic boreal forest to climatic shifts that are increasing forest fire frequency and severity. The Ljusdal fire (2018) was one of the largest wildfires in recorded history in Sweden. We established eddy covariance flux towers to track the impacts of this fire on the carbon balance of two Pinus sylvestris sites subject to different fire severities and forest management strategies 1–4 years post-fire.... (More)
Wildfire is one of the most important disturbances affecting boreal forests. Most previous research on boreal forest fires has occurred in North American forests which have different fire regimes, tree species and are less intensively managed than their Eurasian counterparts. Recent extreme fire years have highlighted the vulnerability of the Nordic boreal forest to climatic shifts that are increasing forest fire frequency and severity. The Ljusdal fire (2018) was one of the largest wildfires in recorded history in Sweden. We established eddy covariance flux towers to track the impacts of this fire on the carbon balance of two Pinus sylvestris sites subject to different fire severities and forest management strategies 1–4 years post-fire. The ‘SLM’ site was a mature stand that experienced low-severity fire (trees survived) followed by salvage-logging and reseeding, whilst the ‘HY’ site was 10 years old when it experienced high-severity fire (all trees killed) then was replanted with seedlings. During the study period, both sites were net carbon sources at the annual scale. It took up to 4 years after the fire until the first day of net CO2 uptake was recorded at each site. We estimated that it will take 13 years (8, 21; mean ± 95 % confidence intervals) after the fire until the sites reach a neutral annual carbon balance. It will take up to 32 years (19, 53) at HY and 46 years (31, 70) at SLM to offset the carbon lost during and after the fire and salvage-logging. In addition, our measurements showed that more carbon was emitted in the first 4 years after the fire compared to the carbon lost from combustion during the fire. Quantifying carbon fluxes during the initial years after fire is therefore crucial for estimating the net impact of wildfire on the carbon budget of boreal forests. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; and , et al. (More)
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; and (Less)
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
volume
351
article number
110016
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85190861490
ISSN
0168-1923
DOI
10.1016/j.agrformet.2024.110016
project
2018 Wildfires: Forest Management Impact on Above- and Belowground Ecosystem Recovery
Using high-resolution drone data to analyse forest recovery after the 2018 Swedish wildfires
Forest fires - impacts on carbon pools, climate forcing, and their societal perceptions during the early vegetation recovery years
Impacts of the extreme 2018 forest fires and post-fire forest management on carbon pools and climate forcing
Post-fire reforestation; securing climate-relevant carbon baseline data from soil and canopy to ecosystem scale
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
05995bcf-8dd7-429f-bb56-1e51f3085350
date added to LUP
2024-04-23 11:57:43
date last changed
2024-05-20 04:02:09
@article{05995bcf-8dd7-429f-bb56-1e51f3085350,
  abstract     = {{Wildfire is one of the most important disturbances affecting boreal forests. Most previous research on boreal forest fires has occurred in North American forests which have different fire regimes, tree species and are less intensively managed than their Eurasian counterparts. Recent extreme fire years have highlighted the vulnerability of the Nordic boreal forest to climatic shifts that are increasing forest fire frequency and severity. The Ljusdal fire (2018) was one of the largest wildfires in recorded history in Sweden. We established eddy covariance flux towers to track the impacts of this fire on the carbon balance of two Pinus sylvestris sites subject to different fire severities and forest management strategies 1–4 years post-fire. The ‘SLM’ site was a mature stand that experienced low-severity fire (trees survived) followed by salvage-logging and reseeding, whilst the ‘HY’ site was 10 years old when it experienced high-severity fire (all trees killed) then was replanted with seedlings. During the study period, both sites were net carbon sources at the annual scale. It took up to 4 years after the fire until the first day of net CO2 uptake was recorded at each site. We estimated that it will take 13 years (8, 21; mean ± 95 % confidence intervals) after the fire until the sites reach a neutral annual carbon balance. It will take up to 32 years (19, 53) at HY and 46 years (31, 70) at SLM to offset the carbon lost during and after the fire and salvage-logging. In addition, our measurements showed that more carbon was emitted in the first 4 years after the fire compared to the carbon lost from combustion during the fire. Quantifying carbon fluxes during the initial years after fire is therefore crucial for estimating the net impact of wildfire on the carbon budget of boreal forests.}},
  author       = {{Kelly, Julia and Kljun, Natascha and Cai, Zhanzhang and Doerr, Stefan H. and Donofrio, Claudio and Holst, Thomas and Lehner, Irene and Lindroth, Anders and Thapa, Shangharsha and Vestin, Patrik and Santín, Cristina}},
  issn         = {{0168-1923}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{05}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Agricultural and Forest Meteorology}},
  title        = {{Wildfire impacts on the carbon budget of a managed Nordic boreal forest}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2024.110016}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.agrformet.2024.110016}},
  volume       = {{351}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}