Simulating changes in fire and ecosystem productivity under climate change conditions
Abstract
Fire is likely to change under climate change conditions. The complex interactions between vegetation productivity and climate conditions in temperature vs. moisture-limited ecosystems make projections about shifts in fire regimes and vegetation dynamics difficult, unless the full range of fire processes and interactions with vegetation dynamics is captured in a simulation model. Therefore, to explain the links between climate drivers and environmental processes under climate change and rising CO2, simulation experiments were conducted, in which multiple GCM outputs were applied. Patterns of changes in fire season versus biomass burnt were analysed. Changes in length of fire season do not always imply the same rate of change in biomass burning, but can be modified by either the non-linear relationship between length of fire season and fractional area burnt or changes in vegetation productivity and thus fuel limitation. Latitudinal averages of biomass burnt and net ecosystem production show how fire can not only influence the magnitude of net carbon exchange, but also its sign. Results outline the importance of a dynamic link between vegetation and fire processes in simulation models.
- Publication:
-
EGS - AGU - EUG Joint Assembly
- Pub Date:
- April 2003
- Bibcode:
- 2003EAEJA.....9198T