National Center for Atmospheric Research, 1850 Table Mesa Drive, Boulder, Colorado 80301, USA.
Environ Sci Technol. 2010 Mar 15;44(6):1926-32. doi: 10.1021/es902455e.
Carbon sequestration by forested ecosystems offers a potential climate change mitigation benefit. However, wildfire has the potential to reverse this benefit In the western United States, climate change and land management practices have led to increases in wildfire intensity and size. One potential means of reducing carbon emissions from wildfire is the use of prescribed burning,which consumes less biomass and therefore releases less carbon to the atmosphere. This study uses a regional fire emissions model to estimate the potential reduction in fire emissions when prescribed burning is applied in dry, temperate forested systems of the western U.S. Daily carbon dioxide (CO(2)) fire emissions for 2001-2008 were calculated for the western U.S. for two cases: a default wildfire case and one in which prescribed burning was applied. Wide-scale prescribed fire application can reduce CO(2) fire emissions for the western U.S. by 18-25%1 in the western U.S., and by as much as 60% in specific forest systems. Although this work does not address important considerations such as the feasibility of implementing wide-scale prescribed fire management or the cumulative emissions from repeated prescribed burning, it does provide constraints on potential carbon emission reductions when prescribed burning is used.
森林生态系统的碳固存具有潜在的气候变化缓解效益。然而，野火有可能使这种效益逆转。在美国西部，气候变化和土地管理实践导致野火的强度和规模增加。减少野火碳排放的一种潜在方法是使用计划火烧，它消耗的生物质较少，因此向大气释放的碳也较少。本研究使用区域火灾排放模型来估计在美国西部干燥温和的森林系统中应用计划火烧时火灾排放的潜在减少量。计算了 2001-2008 年美国西部的每日二氧化碳（CO（2））火灾排放量，针对两种情况：默认野火情况和应用计划火烧的情况。在美国西部，广泛应用计划火烧可以将 CO（2）的火灾排放量减少 18-25%1，在特定的森林系统中，甚至可以减少 60%。尽管这项工作没有涉及到实施广泛的计划火烧管理的可行性或重复计划火烧的累积排放量等重要考虑因素，但它确实为使用计划火烧时潜在的碳排放减少提供了限制。
