Collaborative Research: Increasing wildfires and the loss of legacy carbon from boreal and tundra ecosystems

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This research asks how increasing wildfires will change carbon storage in northern ecosystems. Carbon is in all living things, the ocean, the earth, and the atmosphere. Increasing carbon in the atmosphere has led to climate change, which has had major effects across the globe. One effect has been increasing wildfires in northern ecosystems. In these ecosystems, large amounts of carbon are stored in soils. This carbon can be stored for a long time and is sometimes very old. Wildfires that burn these soils can release this old carbon to the atmosphere and cause more climate warming. This project will determine where and when this old carbon is burning. This information will help us understand how increasing wildfires will affect future climate. It will also help fire managers set priorities for where to fight fires. We will share our results with rural northern communities near our research sites and with citizens and youth of Northern Arizona.This research will investigate how increasing wildfires will impact the long-term carbon storage of Arctic ecosystems. Arctic ecosystems store over 40% of terrestrial carbon and have historically been considered carbon sinks. This means they store more carbon than they lose to the atmosphere. Carbon in these ecosystems is primarily stored in soils for long periods, sometimes centuries. Periodic wildfires release some soil carbon to the atmosphere. Any soil carbon that escapes burning in a previous fire is called 'legacy carbon.' Due to climate warming, wildfires have increased in frequency and severity in northern ecosystems. More severe and frequent wildfires can combust legacy carbon and shift Arctic ecosystems from a carbon sink to a carbon source to the atmosphere. The main objective of this research is to determine the processes that control legacy carbon combustion. Understanding where and when legacy carbon combustion is likely to occur is essential for predicting how frequently Arctic ecosystems will shift from a carbon sink to a carbon source. These results will benefit global stakeholders, including policymakers, by improving our understanding of the mechanisms through which environmental change affects the global carbon cycle and climate. For regional and local stakeholders, such as fire managers, this research will improve our ability to identify areas vulnerable to legacy carbon combustion to better prioritize management decisions. We will share our results with fire managers by partnering with the Alaska Fire Science Consortium. We will also engage with rural communities in Interior Alaska by hiring a local guide and communicating our research goals, progress, and findings with community members. Finally, we will engage with citizens, particularly youth, of Northern Arizona about Arctic research by participating in our local festival of science.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.