Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The climate impact of extreme boreal fires in 2021 and 2023 has drawn great attention for their record‐high CO 2 emissions. However, their climate impact extends beyond carbon. Fires also emit large amounts of reactive nitrogen, which plays a crucial role in the nitrogen and carbon cycles. Through top‐down inversion of satellite observations, we estimate that the extreme boreal fires in 2021 and 2023 emitted 2.6 Tg N yr −1 and 4.9 Tg N yr −1 of NH 3 , respectively, which are comparable to agricultural‐intensive regions, making boreal fires the second‐largest contributor to the global reactive nitrogen budget. Unlike tropical fires, which emit more NO x than NH 3 , boreal fires are characterized by high NH 3 emissions. With global warming likely to increase wildfire frequency, the rising NH 3 emissions from boreal fires could have significant implications for the nitrogen and carbon cycles in that nitrogen‐limited region, necessitating their consideration in future climate impact assessments.
Source: Geophysical Research Letters
DOI: 10.1029/2024gl112396
Authors: Qiwen Chen, Yuanhong Zhao, Bo Zheng, Lin Zhang
Language: English
Topic: Fire effects on ecosystems
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDGs: Climate action, Life on land
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,190
OpenAlex ID: W4407399367