“Zombie fires” and burning of fire-resistant vegetation are new features driving Arctic fires—with strong consequences for the global climate—warn international fire scientists in a commentary published today in Nature Geoscience.
The 2020 Arctic wildfire season began two months early and was unprecedented in scope.
“It’s not just the amount of burned area that is alarming,” said Dr. Merritt Turetsky, a coauthor of the study who is a fire and permafrost ecologist at INSTAAR. “There are other trends we noticed in the satellite data that tell us how the Arctic fire regime is changing and what this spells for our climate future.”
The scientists contend that input and expertise of Indigenous and other local and communities is essential to understanding and managing this global issue.
Read more at University of Colorado at Boulder
Photo Credit: Western Arctic National Parklands via Wikimedia Commons
.jpg){kind=link}