The impact of climate factors on Alaska fire carbon emission from 2001 to 2018

Abstract

Fire is an important disturbance in earth’s system. In the arctic region, fire can release huge amount of carbon as the arctic peatland stored almost one third of carbon storage in the earth’s soil. The gaseous carbon compounds are usually greenhouse gases, which can enhance the greenhouse effect, and warm the arctic region. Fire risk in the arctic region is positively correlated to the warmer climate. There is a potential positive feedback between the climate and the carbon loss from wildfire in the arctic region, but the relation between fire carbon emission and climate change in the arctic largely remains unknow. This study aimed to analyse the correlation between the climate factors and the fire carbon emission. This study used Multiple Linear Regression and ANCOVA to analyse the correlation of the carbon emission from 2001 to 2018 in Alaska. The findings indicated that the fire carbon emission in Alaska fluctuated significantly within those years, and the high carbon emission was associated with the large fire events, which burned massive amounts of areas. The carbon emission was mostly affected by the temperature and humidity, but the correlation was negative. As the fire carbon emission was not covaried with the warming climate, the future fire carbon emission might be depending on the interactions among various climate factors.