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Climate regulation of fire emissions and deforestation in equatorial Asia.

Publication ,  Journal Article
van der Werf, GR; Dempewolf, J; Trigg, SN; Randerson, JT; Kasibhatla, PS; Giglio, L; Murdiyarso, D; Peters, W; Morton, DC; Collatz, GJ ...
Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
December 2008

Drainage of peatlands and deforestation have led to large-scale fires in equatorial Asia, affecting regional air quality and global concentrations of greenhouse gases. Here we used several sources of satellite data with biogeochemical and atmospheric modeling to better understand and constrain fire emissions from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea during 2000-2006. We found that average fire emissions from this region [128 +/- 51 (1sigma) Tg carbon (C) year(-1), T = 10(12)] were comparable to fossil fuel emissions. In Borneo, carbon emissions from fires were highly variable, fluxes during the moderate 2006 El Niño more than 30 times greater than those during the 2000 La Niña (and with a 2000-2006 mean of 74 +/- 33 Tg C yr(-1)). Higher rates of forest loss and larger areas of peatland becoming vulnerable to fire in drought years caused a strong nonlinear relation between drought and fire emissions in southern Borneo. Fire emissions from Sumatra showed a positive linear trend, increasing at a rate of 8 Tg C year(-2) (approximately doubling during 2000-2006). These results highlight the importance of including deforestation in future climate agreements. They also imply that land manager responses to expected shifts in tropical precipitation may critically determine the strength of climate-carbon cycle feedbacks during the 21st century.

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Published In

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

DOI

EISSN

1091-6490

ISSN

0027-8424

Publication Date

December 2008

Volume

105

Issue

51

Start / End Page

20350 / 20355

Related Subject Headings

  • Sphagnopsida
  • Satellite Communications
  • Fires
  • Ecosystem
  • Droughts
  • Conservation of Natural Resources
  • Climate
  • Carbon Monoxide
  • Asia
 

Citation

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van der Werf, G. R., Dempewolf, J., Trigg, S. N., Randerson, J. T., Kasibhatla, P. S., Giglio, L., … DeFries, R. S. (2008). Climate regulation of fire emissions and deforestation in equatorial Asia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105(51), 20350–20355. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0803375105
Werf, G. R. van der, J. Dempewolf, S. N. Trigg, J. T. Randerson, P. S. Kasibhatla, L. Giglio, D. Murdiyarso, et al. “Climate regulation of fire emissions and deforestation in equatorial Asia.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 105, no. 51 (December 2008): 20350–55. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0803375105.
van der Werf GR, Dempewolf J, Trigg SN, Randerson JT, Kasibhatla PS, Giglio L, et al. Climate regulation of fire emissions and deforestation in equatorial Asia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2008 Dec;105(51):20350–5.
van der Werf, G. R., et al. “Climate regulation of fire emissions and deforestation in equatorial Asia.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 105, no. 51, Dec. 2008, pp. 20350–55. Epmc, doi:10.1073/pnas.0803375105.
van der Werf GR, Dempewolf J, Trigg SN, Randerson JT, Kasibhatla PS, Giglio L, Murdiyarso D, Peters W, Morton DC, Collatz GJ, Dolman AJ, DeFries RS. Climate regulation of fire emissions and deforestation in equatorial Asia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2008 Dec;105(51):20350–20355.
Journal cover image

Published In

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

DOI

EISSN

1091-6490

ISSN

0027-8424

Publication Date

December 2008

Volume

105

Issue

51

Start / End Page

20350 / 20355

Related Subject Headings

  • Sphagnopsida
  • Satellite Communications
  • Fires
  • Ecosystem
  • Droughts
  • Conservation of Natural Resources
  • Climate
  • Carbon Monoxide
  • Asia