Recent massive expansion of wildfire and its impact on active layer over pan-Arctic permafrost

• Published in: Environmental research letters 2023-08, Vol.18 (8), p.84010
• Main Authors: Zhu, Xingru, Xu, Xiyan, Jia, Gensuo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: active layer thickness; belowground combustion; Boreal forests; Climate change; Combustion; Degradation; Global warming; Moisture effects; Organic carbon; Permafrost; Polar environments; Positive feedback; Soil degradation; Soil moisture; wildfire; Wildfires
• ISSN: 1748-9326; 1748-9326
• DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ace205

Wildfire is recognized as an increasing threat to the southern boreal forests and the permafrost beneath them, with less occurring over the cold continuous permafrost than before. However, we show that continuous permafrost was a major contribution to wildfire expansion in the pan-Arctic over the last two decades. The expansion rate of burned area over continuous permafrost was 0.9 Mha decade −1 , in contrast to a decreasing trend (−0.5 Mha decade −1 ) over the entire permafrost areas. Burned area has been rapidly growing in the north of the Arctic Circle in particular, where the total burned area in the major fire seasons during 2011–2020 nearly doubled that during 2001–2010. Wildfire expansion is closely linked to an increased soil moisture deficit, considering wildfires there combust more than 90% of belowground fuel. Continuous permafrost experiences more severe fire-induced degradation. Active layer thickening following wildfires over continuous permafrost lasts more than three decades to reach a maximum of more than triple the pre-fire thickness. These new findings highlight the massive expansion of wildfires over continuous permafrost, which can dramatically modify ecological processes, disturb organic carbon stock, and thus accelerate the positive feedback between permafrost degradation and climate warming.