Carbon emissions and radiative forcings from tundra wildfires in the Yukon–Kuskokwim River Delta, Alaska

Moubarak, Michael; Sistla, Seeta; Potter, Stefano; Natali, Susan M.; Rogers, Brendan M.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-1537-2023

Articles | Volume 20, issue 8

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-1537-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

The role of fire in the Earth system: understanding interactions...

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-1537-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 20, issue 8

Research article

|

18 Apr 2023

Research article |

| 18 Apr 2023

Carbon emissions and radiative forcings from tundra wildfires in the Yukon–Kuskokwim River Delta, Alaska

Michael Moubarak, Seeta Sistla, Stefano Potter, Susan M. Natali, and Brendan M. Rogers

Data sets

Yukon-Kuskokwim River Delta 2015 fire burn depth measurements and unburned soil and vegetation organic matter and carbon content collected in 2019 Michael Moubarak, Seeta Sistla, Susan M. Natali https://doi.org/10.18739/A2DN3ZX3Q

Model code and software

Radiative forcings of gaseous emissions Michael Moubarak https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6617455

Short summary

Tundra wildfires are increasing in frequency and severity with climate change. We show using a combination of field measurements and computational modeling that tundra wildfires result in a positive feedback to climate change by emitting significant amounts of long-lived greenhouse gasses. With these effects, attention to tundra fires is necessary for mitigating climate change.