Increased Fire Activity in Alaska since the 1980s: Evidence from an Ice Core‐derived Black Carbon Record

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Roxana Sierra‐Hernández ◽  
Emilie Beaudon ◽  
Stacy E. Porter ◽  
Ellen Mosley‐Thompson ◽  
Lonnie G. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Black Carbon ◽  
Ice Core ◽  
Fire Activity

scholarly journals A Holocene black carbon ice-core record of biomass burning in the Amazon Basin from Illimani, Bolivia

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 579-592 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimitri Osmont ◽  
Michael Sigl ◽  
Anja Eichler ◽  
Theo M. Jenk ◽  
Margit Schwikowski
Keyword(s):  
Black Carbon ◽  
Biomass Burning ◽  
Amazon Basin ◽  
Ice Core ◽  
Medieval Warm Period ◽  
Warm Period ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Holocene Climatic Optimum ◽  
Fire Activity ◽  
Ice Core Record

Abstract. The Amazon Basin is one of the major contributors to global biomass burning emissions. However, regional paleofire trends remain particularly unknown. Due to their proximity to the Amazon Basin, Andean ice cores are suitable to reconstruct paleofire trends in South America and improve our understanding of the complex linkages between fires, climate and humans. Here we present the first refractory black carbon (rBC) ice-core record from the Andes as a proxy for biomass burning emissions in the Amazon Basin, derived from an ice core drilled at 6300 m a.s.l. from the Illimani glacier in the Bolivian Andes and spanning the entire Holocene back to the last deglaciation 13 000 years ago. The Illimani rBC record displays a strong seasonality with low values during the wet season and high values during the dry season due to the combination of enhanced biomass burning emissions in the Amazon Basin and less precipitation at the Illimani site. Significant positive (negative) correlations were found with reanalyzed temperature (precipitation) data for regions in eastern Bolivia and western Brazil characterized by substantial fire activity. rBC long-term trends indirectly reflect regional climatic variations through changing biomass burning emissions as they show higher (lower) concentrations during warm–dry (cold–wet) periods, in line with climate variations such as the Younger Dryas, the 8.2 ka event, the Holocene Climatic Optimum, the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age. The highest rBC concentrations of the entire record occurred during the Holocene Climatic Optimum between 7000 and 3000 BCE, suggesting that this exceptionally warm and dry period caused high levels of biomass burning activity, unprecedented in the context of the past 13 000 years. Recent rBC levels, rising since 1730 CE in the context of increasing temperatures and deforestation, are similar to those of the Medieval Warm Period. No decrease in fire activity was observed in the 20th century, in contradiction to global biomass burning reconstructions based on charcoal data.

Re-assessment of pre-industrial fires in CMIP6 models and the implications for radiative forcing

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Carslaw ◽  
Cat Scott ◽  
Masaru Yoshioka ◽  
Douglas Hamilton ◽  
Fiona O’Connor ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Black Carbon ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Ice Core ◽  
Coupled Model ◽  
Carbon Surface ◽  
Anthropogenic Aerosol ◽  
Aerosol Radiative Forcing ◽  
Fire Emissions ◽  
Fire Activity ◽  
Aerosol Emissions

<p>Assessment of anthropogenic radiative forcing requires a robust understanding of the composition of the pre-industrial baseline atmosphere from which calculations are made</p><p>It is often assumed that fire activity and the associated aerosol emissions were lower in the pre-industrial period than in the present day. However, some lines of evidence suggest that fire activity may have halved since the pre-industrial period. </p><p>Here we compare the simulated ratio of pre-industrial (c.1750CE and c.1850CE) to present-day black carbon surface concentrations in five ESMs (CNRM-ESM2-1, EC-Earth3, IPSL-CM6, NorESM1.2, UKESM1), using historical fire emissions from the Sixth Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6), to the ratio in Northern Hemisphere ice-core records. </p><p>We find that when forced with CMIP6 fire emissions all ESMs overestimate the present-day to pre-industrial black carbon ratio. This is consistent with previous studies and suggests that the contribution of fire to the composition of the pre-industrial atmosphere may be too low. If the contrast between the pre-industrial and present-day atmospheres in these models is too great, they are likely to overestimate the strength of the anthropogenic aerosol radiative forcing.  </p><p>We extend our analysis to include additional ESMs providing historical simulations for CMIP6, as included in the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report.</p><p> </p>

scholarly journals Improved estimates of preindustrial biomass burning reduce the magnitude of aerosol climate forcing in the Southern Hemisphere

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (22) ◽  
pp. eabc1379
Author(s):  
Pengfei Liu ◽  
Jed O. Kaplan ◽  
Loretta J. Mickley ◽  
Yang Li ◽  
Nathan J. Chellman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Southern Hemisphere ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Ice Core ◽  
Ice Cores ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Fire Emissions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Fire Activity

Fire plays a pivotal role in shaping terrestrial ecosystems and the chemical composition of the atmosphere and thus influences Earth’s climate. The trend and magnitude of fire activity over the past few centuries are controversial, which hinders understanding of preindustrial to present-day aerosol radiative forcing. Here, we present evidence from records of 14 Antarctic ice cores and 1 central Andean ice core, suggesting that historical fire activity in the Southern Hemisphere (SH) exceeded present-day levels. To understand this observation, we use a global fire model to show that overall SH fire emissions could have declined by 30% over the 20th century, possibly because of the rapid expansion of land use for agriculture and animal production in middle to high latitudes. Radiative forcing calculations suggest that the decreasing trend in SH fire emissions over the past century largely compensates for the cooling effect of increasing aerosols from fossil fuel and biofuel sources.

scholarly journals Fire in ice: two millennia of Northern Hemisphere fire history from the Greenland NEEM ice core

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 809-857 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Zennaro ◽  
N. Kehrwald ◽  
J. R. McConnell ◽  
S. Schüpbach ◽  
O. Maselli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Black Carbon ◽  
Biomass Burning ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Ice Cores ◽  
Dominant Factor ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past 2000 Years ◽  
Isotopic Analyses ◽  
Fire Activity

Abstract. Biomass burning is a major source of greenhouse gases and influences regional to global climate. Pre-industrial fire-history records from black carbon, charcoal and other proxies provide baseline estimates of biomass burning at local to global scales, but there remains a need for broad-scale fire proxies that span millennia in order to understand the role of fire in the carbon cycle and climate system. We use the specific biomarker levoglucosan, and multi-source black carbon and ammonium concentrations to reconstruct fire activity from the North Greenland Eemian (NEEM) ice cores (77.49° N; 51.2° W, 2480 m a.s.l.) over the past 2000 years. Increases in boreal fire activity (1000–1300 CE and 1500–1700 CE) over multi-decadal timescales coincide with the most extensive central and northern Asian droughts of the past two millennia. The NEEM biomass burning tracers coincide with temperature changes throughout much of the past 2000 years except for during the extreme droughts, when precipitation changes are the dominant factor. Many of these multi-annual droughts are caused by monsoon failures, thus suggesting a connection between low and high latitude climate processes. North America is a primary source of biomass burning aerosols due to its relative proximity to the NEEM camp. During major fire events, however, isotopic analyses of dust, back-trajectories and links with levoglucosan peaks and regional drought reconstructions suggest that Siberia is also an important source of pyrogenic aerosols to Greenland.

scholarly journals Historical black carbon deposition in the Canadian High Arctic: a <i>></i>250-year long ice-core record from Devon Island

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (16) ◽  
pp. 12345-12361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian M. Zdanowicz ◽  
Bernadette C. Proemse ◽  
Ross Edwards ◽  
Wang Feiteng ◽  
Chad M. Hogan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Black Carbon ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Ice Core ◽  
Detection Sensitivity ◽  
Anthropogenic Sources ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Coal Burning ◽  
Ice Cap ◽  
Devon Ice Cap ◽  
Ice Core Record

Abstract. Black carbon aerosol (BC), which is emitted from natural and anthropogenic sources (e.g., wildfires, coal burning), can contribute to magnify climate warming at high latitudes by darkening snow- and ice-covered surfaces, and subsequently lowering their albedo. Therefore, modeling the atmospheric transport and deposition of BC to the Arctic is important, and historical archives of BC accumulation in polar ice can help to validate such modeling efforts. Here we present a > 250-year ice-core record of refractory BC (rBC) deposition on Devon ice cap, Canada, spanning the years from 1735 to 1992. This is the first such record ever developed from the Canadian Arctic. The estimated mean deposition flux of rBC on Devon ice cap for 1963–1990 is 0.2 mg m−2 a−1, which is at the low end of estimates from Greenland ice cores obtained using the same analytical method ( ∼ 0.1–4 mg m−2 a−1). The Devon ice cap rBC record also differs from the Greenland records in that it shows only a modest increase in rBC deposition during the 20th century. In the Greenland records a pronounced rise in rBC is observed from the 1880s to the 1910s, which is largely attributed to midlatitude coal burning emissions. The deposition of contaminants such as sulfate and lead increased on Devon ice cap in the 20th century but no concomitant rise in rBC is recorded in the ice. Part of the difference with Greenland could be due to local factors such as melt–freeze cycles on Devon ice cap that may limit the detection sensitivity of rBC analyses in melt-impacted core samples, and wind scouring of winter snow at the coring site. Air back-trajectory analyses also suggest that Devon ice cap receives BC from more distant North American and Eurasian sources than Greenland, and aerosol mixing and removal during long-range transport over the Arctic Ocean likely masks some of the specific BC source–receptor relationships. Findings from this study suggest that there could be a large variability in BC aerosol deposition across the Arctic region arising from different transport patterns. This variability needs to be accounted for when estimating the large-scale albedo lowering effect of BC deposition on Arctic snow/ice.

scholarly journals Black carbon variability since preindustrial times in Eastern part of Europe reconstructed from Mt Elbrus, Caucasus ice cores

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saehee Lim ◽  
Xavier Faïn ◽  
Patrick Ginot ◽  
Vladimir Mikhalenko ◽  
Stanislav Kutuzov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Black Carbon ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Biomass Burning ◽  
Mass Concentration ◽  
Ice Core ◽  
Ice Cores ◽  
Anthropogenic Emissions ◽  
Ice Core Record ◽  
Summer Time ◽  
Mass Concentrations

Abstract. Black carbon (BC), emitted by fossil fuel combustion and biomass burning, is the second largest man-made contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide (Bond et al., 2013). However, limited information exists on its past emissions and atmospheric variability. In this study, we present the first high-resolution record of refractory BC (rBC, including mass concentration and size) reconstructed from ice cores drilled at a high-altitude Eastern European site in Mt. Elbrus (ELB), Caucasus (5115 m a.s.l.). The ELB ice core record, covering the period 1825–2013, reflects the atmospheric load of rBC particles at the ELB site transported from the European continent with a larger rBC input from sources located in the Eastern part of Europe. In the first half of the 20th century, European anthropogenic emissions resulted in a 1.5-fold increase in the ice core rBC mass concentrations as respect to its level in the preindustrial era (before 1850). The rBC mass concentrations increased by a 5-fold in 1960–1980, followed by a decrease until ~ 2000. Over the last decade, the rBC signal for summer time slightly increased. We have compared the signal with the atmospheric BC load simulated using past BC emissions (ACCMIP and MACCity inventories) and taken into account the contribution of different geographical region to rBC distribution and deposition at the ELB site. Interestingly, the observed rBC variability in the ELB ice core record since the 1960s is not in perfect agreement with the simulated atmospheric BC load. Similar features between the ice core rBC record and the best scenarios for the atmospheric BC load support that anthropogenic BC increase in the 20th century is reflected in the ELB ice core record. However, the peak in BC mass concentration observed in ~ 1970 in the ice core is estimated to occur a decade later from past inventories. BC emission inventories for the period 1960s–1970s may be underestimating European anthropogenic emissions. Furthermore, for summer time snow layers of the last 2000s, the slightly increasing trend of rBC deposition likely reflects recent changes in anthropogenic and biomass burning BC emissions in the Eastern part of Europe. Our study highlights that the past changes in BC emissions of Eastern Europe need to be considered in assessing on-going air quality regulation.

scholarly journals Black carbon record based on a shallow Himalayan ice core and its climatic implications

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 14413-14432 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Ming ◽  
H. Cachier ◽  
C. Xiao ◽  
D. Qin ◽  
S. Kang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Black Carbon ◽  
Trajectory Analysis ◽  
Continuous Measurement ◽  
Ice Core ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
The Past ◽  
Increasing Trend ◽  
Radiative Absorption ◽  
Air Trajectory

Abstract. A continuous measurement for black carbon conducted on a shallow ice core extracted from the East Rongbuk glacier beside Mt. Qomolangma recovers the first historical record of black carbon 13 deposition in the past ~50 years in the high Asian cryosphere. Fast increasing trend of BC concentration is revealed since the mid-1990s. Backward air trajectory analysis indicates that South Asia's emission has significant impacts on the BC deposition in the East Rongbuk glacier. The estimated atmospheric BC concentration over the East Rongbuk glacier is about 80 ngC m−3. This suggests black carbon from South Asia's emission might penetrate into the Tibetan Plateau by 18 climbing over the elevated Himalayas. Considering the consequent extra solar radiative absorption over the glacier, it is suggested that this amplitude of BC concentration in the atmosphere over the Himalayas could not be neglected when assessing the warming effect on the surface of the glaciers on the Himalayas.

scholarly journals A Holocene black carbon ice-core record of biomass burning in the Amazon Basin from Illimani, Bolivia

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimitri Osmont ◽  
Michael Sigl ◽  
Anja Eichler ◽  
Theo M. Jenk ◽  
Margit Schwikowski
Keyword(s):  
Black Carbon ◽  
Biomass Burning ◽  
Amazon Basin ◽  
Ice Core ◽  
Medieval Warm Period ◽  
Warm Period ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Holocene Climatic Optimum ◽  
Ice Core Record ◽  
Climatic Optimum

Abstract. The Amazon Basin is one of the major contributors to global biomass burning emissions. However, regional paleofire trends remain partially unknown. Due to their proximity to the Amazon Basin, Andean ice cores are suitable to reconstruct paleofire trends in South America and improve our understanding of the complex linkages between fires, climate and humans. Here we present the first refractory black carbon (rBC) ice-core record from the Andes as a proxy for biomass burning emissions in the Amazon Basin, derived from an ice core drilled at 6300 m a.s.l. from Illimani glacier in the Bolivian Andes and spanning the entire Holocene back to the last deglaciation 13 000 years ago. The Illimani rBC record displays a strong seasonality with low values during the wet season and high values during the dry season due to the combination of enhanced biomass burning emissions in the Amazon Basin and less precipitation at the Illimani site. Significant positive (negative) correlations were found with reanalyzed temperature (precipitation) data, respectively, for regions in Eastern Bolivia and Western Brazil characterized by a substantial fire activity. rBC long-term trends indirectly reflect regional climatic variations through changing biomass burning emissions as they show higher (lower) concentrations during warm/dry (cold/wet) periods, respectively, in line with climate variations such as the Younger Dryas, the 8.2 ka event, the Holocene Climatic Optimum, the Medieval Warm Period or the Little Ice Age. The highest rBC concentrations of the entire record occurred during the Holocene Climatic Optimum between 7000 and 3000 BC, suggesting that this outstanding warm and dry period caused an exceptional biomass burning activity, unprecedented in the context of the past 13 000 years. Recent rBC levels, rising since 1730 AD in the context of increasing temperatures and deforestation, are similar to those of the Medieval Warm Period. No decrease was observed in the 20th century, in contradiction with the global picture (broken fire hockey stick hypothesis).

scholarly journals Five thousand years of fire history in the high North Atlantic region: natural variability and ancient human forcing

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 1533-1545
Author(s):  
Delia Segato ◽  
Maria Del Carmen Villoslada Hidalgo ◽  
Ross Edwards ◽  
Elena Barbaro ◽  
Paul Vallelonga ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Black Carbon ◽  
Biomass Burning ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Atmospheric Chemistry ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Ice Core ◽  
North Atlantic Region ◽  
Atlantic Region ◽  
Ice Cap

Abstract. Biomass burning influences global atmospheric chemistry by releasing greenhouse gases and climate-forcing aerosols. There is controversy about the magnitude and timing of Holocene changes in biomass burning emissions from millennial to centennial timescales and, in particular, about the possible impact of ancient civilizations. Here we present a 5 kyr record of fire activity proxies levoglucosan, black carbon, and ammonium measured in the RECAP (Renland ice cap) ice core, drilled in coastal eastern Greenland, and therefore affected by processes occurring in the high North Atlantic region. Levoglucosan and ammonium fluxes are high from 5 to 4.5 kyr BP (thousand years before 2000 CE) followed by an abrupt decline, possibly due to monotonic decline in Northern Hemisphere summer insolation. Levoglucosan and black carbon show an abrupt decline at 1.1 kyr BP, suggesting a decline in the wildfire regime in Iceland due to the extensive land clearing caused by Viking colonizers. All fire proxies reach a minimum during the second half of the last century, after which levoglucosan and ammonium fluxes increase again, in particular over the last 200 years. We find that the fire regime reconstructed from RECAP fluxes seems mainly related to climatic changes; however over the last millennium human activities might have influenced wildfire frequency/occurrence substantially.

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