Global fire emissions and the contribution of deforestation, savanna, forest, agricultural, and peat fires (1997-2009)
Abstract
New burned area datasets and top-down constraints from atmospheric concentration measurements
of pyrogenic gases have decreased the large uncertainty in fire emissions estimates.
However, significant gaps remain in our understanding of the contribution of deforestation,
savanna, forest, agricultural waste, and peat fires to total global fire emissions.
Here we used a revised version of the Carnegie-Ames-Stanford-Approach (CASA) biogeochemical
model and improved satellite-derived estimates of area burned, fire activity, and
plant productivity to calculate fire emissions for the 1997-2009 period on a 0.5°
spatial resolution with a monthly time step. For November 2000 onwards, estimates
were based on burned area, active fire detections, and plant productivity from the
MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor. For the partitioning
we focused on the MODIS era. We used maps of burned area derived from the Tropical
Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Visible and Infrared Scanner (VIRS) and Along-Track
Scanning Radiometer (ATSR) active fire data prior to MODIS (1997-2000) and estimates
of plant productivity derived from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR)
observations during the same period. Average global fire carbon emissions according
to this version 3 of the Global Fire Emissions Database (GFED3) were 2.0 PgC year-1
with significant interannual variability during 1997-2001 (2.8 Pg Cyear-1 in 1998
and 1.6 PgC year-1 in 2001). Globally, emissions during 2002-2007 were rela-tively
constant (around 2.1 Pg C year-1) before declining in 2008 (1.7 Pg Cyear-1) and 2009
(1.5 PgC year-1) partly due to lower deforestation fire emissions in South America
and tropical Asia. On a regional basis, emissions were highly variable during 2002-2007
(e.g., boreal Asia, South America, and Indonesia), but these regional differences
canceled out at a global level. During the MODIS era (2001-2009), most carbon emissions
were from fires in grasslands and savannas (44%) with smaller contributions from tropical
deforestation and degradation fires (20%), woodland fires (mostly confined to the
tropics, 16%), forest fires (mostly in the extratropics, 15%), agricultural waste
burning (3%), and tropical peat fires (3%). The contribution from agricultural waste
fires was likely a lower bound because our approach for measuring burned area could
not detect all of these relatively small fires. Total carbon emissions were on average
13% lower than in our previous (GFED2) work. For reduced trace gases such as CO and
CH4, deforestation, degradation, and peat fires were more important contributors because
of higher emissions of reduced trace gases per unit carbon combusted compared to savanna
fires. Carbon emissions from tropical deforestation, degradation, and peatland fires
were on average 0.5 PgC year-1. The carbon emissions from these fires may not be balanced
by regrowth following fire. Our results provide the first global assessment of the
contribution of different sources to total global fire emissions for the past decade,
and supply the community with an improved 13-year fire emissions time series. © 2010
Author(s).
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/4618Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.5194/acp-10-11707-2010Publication Info
Van Der Werf, GR; Randerson, JT; Giglio, L; Collatz, GJ; Mu, M; Kasibhatla, PS; ...
Van Leeuwen, TT (2010). Global fire emissions and the contribution of deforestation, savanna, forest, agricultural,
and peat fires (1997-2009). Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 10(23). pp. 11707-11735. 10.5194/acp-10-11707-2010. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/4618.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Prasad S. Kasibhatla
Professor in the Division of Environmental Sciences and Policy
The overarching theme of my research is to develop a fundamental and quantitative
understanding of the factors that determine the chemical composition of the atmosphere.
I am particularly interested in delineating natural and anthropogenic impacts on the
chemical composition of the atmosphere, and in exploring the potential for these impacts
to affect natural ecosystems. My research involves the use of numerical models in
conjunction with remote and insitu measurements of atmospheric composition

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