Effects of Climate Change and Fire on Carbon Storage in North American Boreal Forests
Dates
Year
2000
Citation
Kasischke, Eric S., 2000, Effects of Climate Change and Fire on Carbon Storage in North American Boreal Forests: Springer New York, v. 138, p. 440-452.
Summary
There is little doubt in the scientific community that if the current patterns of climate warming continue, there will be dramatic changes in the distribution of vegetation and forest cover throughout the boreal region. Most research has concentrated on predicting how rises in air temperature will (1) cause shifts in vegetation cover and the carbon balance in the terrestrial biome (Smith and Shugart 1993) or (2) change rates of soil respiration (Townsend et al. 1992; Randerson et al. 1996; Thompson et al. 1997). Recently, more sophisticated biogeochemical cycling models have been developed that actually model the processes responsible for carbon storage in vegetation to assess changes in the terrestrial carbon budget over large areas [...]
Summary
There is little doubt in the scientific community that if the current patterns of climate warming continue, there will be dramatic changes in the distribution of vegetation and forest cover throughout the boreal region. Most research has concentrated on predicting how rises in air temperature will (1) cause shifts in vegetation cover and the carbon balance in the terrestrial biome (Smith and Shugart 1993) or (2) change rates of soil respiration (Townsend et al. 1992; Randerson et al. 1996; Thompson et al. 1997). Recently, more sophisticated biogeochemical cycling models have been developed that actually model the processes responsible for carbon storage in vegetation to assess changes in the terrestrial carbon budget over large areas (Haxeltine and Prentice 1996; McGuire et al. 1997; Peng et al. 1998). None of these approaches takes into consideration the effects of fire on the longer-term patterns of carbon storage in the boreal forest.
