During the extremely hot summer of 2018, 324 forest fires were reported in Sweden. Using field measurements, models, and data from the Swedish Forest Agency, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, and the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, researchers have now mapped where and why the carbon was released.
The study shows that emissions from intense above‑ground fires are overestimated in fire databases. Emissions from deep organic soils and peatlands, on the other hand, are underestimated - during the summer of 2018 by as much as 50 percent. These smoldering underground fires are rarely visible in satellite images, but can release very large amounts of carbon.
“What looks dramatic from above is not always what affects the climate the most. The significantly large emissions actually occur silently underground,” says Johan A. Eckdahl, forest fire researcher at Lund University and the University of California, Berkeley.
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- The full text is available at the following link: Large forest fire emissions are hidden underground | Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
- Link to the publication in Science Advances: Reassessing boreal wildfire drivers enables high-resolution mapping of emissions for climate adaptation
The study was co-authored by Lars Nieradzik, researcher Lund University and MERGE-member and by Louise Rütting, researcher at University of Gothenburg and member of BECC and MERGE.
Johan A. Eckdahl was financially supported by the strategic research areas Biodiversity and Ecosystem in a Changing Climate (BECC) and ModElling the Regional and Global Earth system (MERGE).
