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Science 17 November 2006:
Vol. 314. no. 5802, p. 1045
DOI: 10.1126/science.314.5802.1045m
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Climate warming could cause an increase in boreal forest wildfires, but whether such fires reinforce warming is unclear. Warming could be amplified by increased production of soot, which would decrease surface albedo if it deposits on ice or snow, and by increased CO2 release. Randerson et al. (p. 1130) report measurements and analyses of a boreal fire in Alaska during 1999 and of landscape changes after older fires, and then integrated all of the climate-relevant effects. During the first year after the recent fire, the net impact has been to increase warming, mostly because of the immediate increase of atmospheric CO2 and the effects on ozone and of black carbon and other aerosols. However, they predict that the integrated net forcing during the next 80 years will decrease, mostly because of the sustained increases in surface albedo accompanying forest regrowth and continuing uptake of CO2.




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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)