Improved estimates of preindustrial biomass burning reduce the magnitude of aerosol climate forcing in the Southern Hemisphere.

Liu, P.; Kaplan, J.O.; Mickley, L.J.; Li, Y.; Chellman, N.J.; Arienzo, M.M.; Kodros, J.K.; Pierce, J.R.; Sigl, M.; Frietag, J.; Mulvaney, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5372-8148; Curran, M.A.J.; McConnell, J.R.. 2021 Improved estimates of preindustrial biomass burning reduce the magnitude of aerosol climate forcing in the Southern Hemisphere. Science Advances, 7 (22), eabc1379. 11, pp. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abc1379

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Official URL: https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/22/eabc1...

Abstract/Summary

Fire plays a pivotal role in shaping terrestrial ecosystems and the chemical composition of the atmosphere and thus influences Earth’s climate. The trend and magnitude of fire activity over the past few centuries are controversial, which hinders understanding of preindustrial to present-day aerosol radiative forcing. Here, we present evidence from records of 14 Antarctic ice cores and 1 central Andean ice core, suggesting that historical fire activity in the Southern Hemisphere (SH) exceeded present-day levels. To understand this observation, we use a global fire model to show that overall SH fire emissions could have declined by 30% over the 20th century, possibly because of the rapid expansion of land use for agriculture and animal production in middle to high latitudes. Radiative forcing calculations suggest that the decreasing trend in SH fire emissions over the past century largely compensates for the cooling effect of increasing aerosols from fossil fuel and biofuel sources.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abc1379
ISSN:	2375-2548
Date made live:	01 Jun 2021 09:54 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/530435

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abc1379

ISSN:

2375-2548

Date made live:

01 Jun 2021 09:54 +0 (UTC)

URI:

https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/530435