Vast ecosystem disturbance in a warming climate may jeopardize our climate goal of reducing CO2: a case study for megafires in the Australian 'black summer'

Xinhua Hong; Cheng Liu; Chengxin Zhang; Yuan Tian; Hongyu Wu; Hao Yin; Yizhi Zhu; Yafang Cheng

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.161387

Vast ecosystem disturbance in a warming climate may jeopardize our climate goal of reducing CO₂: a case study for megafires in the Australian 'black summer'

Sci Total Environ. 2023 Mar 25:866:161387. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.161387. Epub 2023 Jan 5.

Authors

Xinhua Hong¹, Cheng Liu², Chengxin Zhang³, Yuan Tian⁴, Hongyu Wu¹, Hao Yin⁵, Yizhi Zhu⁶, Yafang Cheng⁷

Affiliations

¹ School of Environmental Science and Optoelectronic Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
² Department of Precision Machinery and Precision Instrumentation, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China; Center for Excellence in Regional Atmospheric Environment, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China; Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, HFIPS, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, China. Electronic address: chliu81@ustc.edu.cn.
³ Department of Precision Machinery and Precision Instrumentation, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
⁴ Information Materials and Intelligent Sensing Laboratory of Anhui Province, Hefei 230031, China; Institutes of Physical Science and Information Technology, Anhui University, Hefei 230031, China.
⁵ Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, HFIPS, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, China.
⁶ Key Lab of Environmental Optics & Technology, Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, China.
⁷ Department of Precision Machinery and Precision Instrumentation, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China; Minerva Research Group, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz 55128, Germany. Electronic address: yafang.cheng@mpic.de.

PMID: 36621492
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.161387

Abstract

A warming climate is one of the most important driving forces of intensified wildfires globally. The unprecedented wildfires broke out in the Australian 'Black Summer' (November 2019-February 2020), which released massive heat, gases, and particles into the atmosphere. The total carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from wildfires were estimated at ∼963 million tons by using a top-down approach based on direct satellite measurements of CO₂ and fire radiative power. The fire emissions have led to an approximately 50-80 folds increase in total CO₂ emission in Australia compared with the similar seasons of 2014-2019. The excess CO₂ from wildfires has offset almost half of the global anthropogenic CO₂ emission reductions due to the Corona Virus Disease 2019 in 2020. When the wildfires were intense in December 2019, they caused a 1.48 watts per square meter additional positive radiative forcing above the monthly average in Australia and the vicinity. Our findings demonstrate that vast ecosystem disturbance in a warming climate can strongly influence the global carbon cycle and hamper our climate goal of reducing CO₂.

Keywords: CO(2) emission estimate; Carbon budget; Climate change; Radiative forcing; Wildfire.