How have past fire disturbances contributed to the current carbon balance of  boreal ecosystems?

Yue, C.; Ciais, P.; Zhu, D.; Wang, T.; Peng, S. S.; Piao, S. L.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-675-2016

Articles | Volume 13, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-675-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-675-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 13, issue 3

Research article

|

04 Feb 2016

Research article |

| 04 Feb 2016

How have past fire disturbances contributed to the current carbon balance of boreal ecosystems?

C. Yue, P. Ciais, D. Zhu, T. Wang, S. S. Peng, and S. L. Piao

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Final revised paper (published on 04 Feb 2016)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 09 Sep 2015)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC C6319: 'Reviewer comments', Anonymous Referee #1, 08 Oct 2015
- AC C8164: 'Response to the review comments of the Anonymous Referee #1', Chao Yue, 02 Dec 2015
RC C6337: 'comments', Anonymous Referee #2, 08 Oct 2015
- AC C8165: 'Response to the review comments of the Anonymous Referee #2', Chao Yue, 02 Dec 2015

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (Editor review) (04 Jan 2016) by Kirsten Thonicke

AR by Chao Yue on behalf of the Authors (06 Jan 2016) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (14 Jan 2016) by Kirsten Thonicke

AR by Chao Yue on behalf of the Authors (17 Jan 2016) Author's response Manuscript

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Short summary

The pan-boreal biome (> N45°) removes CO₂ from the atmosphere (i.e., it is a carbon sink). Fires can alter this carbon balance because they release CO₂ to the atmosphere but also initiate a long-term carbon sink during post-fire vegetation recovery. We found that historical fires of 1850–2009 have a small net sink contribution (~6 %) to the 2000–2009 regional carbon sink, which is a balance between immediate source effect of fires in 2000–2009 and sink effects of those in 1850–1999.