Natural hazards - Wildfires

Title

Experimental drying intensifies burning and carbon losses in a northern peatland.

Reference

Nature Communications, 2011; 2: 514
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1523

Author(s)

M.R. Turetsky, W.F. Donahue, B.W. Benscoter

Study type

Peer Review Journal

Abstract

For millennia, peatlands have served as an important sink for atmospheric CO2 and today represent a large soil carbon reservoir. While recent land use and wildfires have reduced carbon sequestration in tropical peatlands, the influence of disturbance on boreal peatlands is uncertain, yet it is important for predicting the fate of northern high-latitude carbon reserves. Here we quantify rates of organic matter storage and combustion losses in a boreal peatland subjected to long-term experimental drainage, a portion of which subsequently burned during a wildfire. We show that drainage doubled rates of organic matter accumulation in the soils of unburned plots. However, drainage also increased carbon losses during wildfire ninefold to 16.8±0.2 kg C m−2, equivalent to a loss of more than 450 years of peat accumulation. Interactions between peatland drainage and fire are likely to cause long-term carbon emissions to far exceed rates of carbon uptake, diminishing the northern peatland carbon sink.

Policy theme(s)

Natural hazards >> Wildfires
Soil >> Soil carbon and nitrogen

Keywords

Entry Source:

Selected for Science for Environment Policy News Alert

View this study at:

http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v2/n10/full/ncomms1523.html
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Contact the study author at:

mrt@uoguelph.ca

Title

Mapping the impacts of natural hazards and technological accidents in Europe

Reference

EEA Technical report No 13/2010

Author(s)

EEA

Study type

Report

Abstract

The report assesses the occurrence and impacts of disasters and the underlying hazards such as storms, extreme temperature events, forest fires, water scarcity and droughts, floods, snow avalanches, landslides, earthquakes, volcanoes and technological accidents in Europe for the period 1998-2009.

Policy theme(s)

Natural hazards >> Climatic hazards
Natural hazards >> Flooding
Natural hazards >> Geological hazards
Natural hazards >> Wildfires

Keywords

Natural hazards, Disasters

Entry Source:

N/A

Referred to in EC doc:

Shortlisted for Science for Environment Policy News Alert

View this study at:

http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/mapping-the-impacts-of-natural/at_download/file
This study is free to view

Contact the study author at:

N/A

Title

Integrating fire risk considerations in landscape-level forest planning

Reference

Forest Ecology and Management
Volume 261, Issue 2, 15 January 2011, Pages 278-287

Author(s)

José-Ramón González-Olabarria and Timo Pukkala

Study type

Peer Review Journal

Abstract

The low timber returns of Mediterranean forests, together with their high fire risk, has led to negligent forest management. Absence of management has in turn been blamed for increasing the risk of fire, thus forming a vicious circle of low profitability, little management and high risk of fire. Developing forest planning tools that maximize both economic objectives and fire resistance could help to revive the forest sector in the region and generate long-term fire prevention strategies. In the present study, we simultaneously maximized timber income and the overall fire resistance of the landscape to generate management plans for a typical forest landscape in the Pre-Pyrenees of Catalonia (North-East Spain). The risk of fire was integrated into the economic objective by incorporating potential fire losses in the expected net income. Landscape metrics describing fire resistance were also included in problem formulations. The results show that this approach greatly improves management efficiency in terms of economic profitability and fire resistance.

Policy theme(s)

Forests >> Forest protection >> Forest fires
Natural hazards >> Wildfires

Keywords

Fire resistance, Heuristics, Simulated annealing, Spatial optimization

Entry Source:

Selected for Science for Environment Policy News Alert

Referred to in EC doc:

N/A

View this study at:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112710006298
There is a fee to view this study in full

Contact the study author at:

jr.gonzalez@ctfc.es