Posted on March 5, 2008 in Latest News
As a dire consequence of continual global warming, the fire in Arctic tundra may increase. A new research study has been done on this issue. After examining the connections between the historic changes in vegetation and climate, the study cautions that the fire can aggravate. Even it can trigger further warming.
Revealings Of The Research Study
There are some awful revealings. The research study suggests that approximately one third of the earth’s soil-based carbon gets locked in the high-latitude tundra as well as in the boreal forest ecosystems.
So, the sudden release of carbon dioxide gas can increase the burning in tundra. As a result of this aggravated burning, the global warming will also be fuelled to a large extent.
“As the climate changes, biomass will increase in the tundra and with it will come more fires,” explains Philip Higuera of Montana State University in Bozeman, US. Another major reason of the increasing fire is the availability of more plants. The drier climate worsens the situation.
Blazing Bushes
The researchers collected core samples from the centre of four lakes along the southern slope of northern Alaska’s Brooks Range.
According to the research study, earlier, the vegetation on the southern slope seems to be like the herbs, shrubs and grasses. It is also found that there were shrub tundra and tall birch shrubs that generally grow up till two meters.
The charcoal fragments of that place clearly state that tundra kept on burning every 140 years, nearly twice as frequent as it is known to burn in Alaska now.
Expected Blazing
The researchers anticipated that the climate of the region can increase by 3.7 to 5 ºC by 2100 . And tundra of the Brooks Range is prone to turn into shrub tundra in the near future.
“If current rates are maintained, we would expect 100% of tundra in northern Alaska to be dominated by shrubs in another century,” Higuera said and he added that the boreal forests can also encroach further north.
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