Frequent Wildfires Diminish Ecosystems’ Ability to Remove Carbon Dioxide From Atmosphere

Newswise — A new Nature Climate Change review paper led by University of Idaho’s Tara Hudiburg uncovers how wildfires are impacting carbon storage across the world’s landscapes.

Many wildfire studies focus on carbon emissions, but here, the multi-institutional team of investigators examined how wildfire impacts the ability of biological organisms to recover following fire and the consequences for above- and belowground carbon uptake and persistence. The review found that more severe and frequent wildfires are exceeding the capacity of many ecosystems to recover from burns. Without sufficient time for plants to fully reestablish, some landscapes are shifting to novel ecosystems with a lower capacity to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (e.g., from carbon dense forests to grasslands).

Unique to this review, the researchers also explore changes in microbial community composition and function that influence vegetation recovery following fire. For instance, many studies identified “pyrophilic” (i.e., fire-loving) organisms that were able to grow rapidly and metabolize burned biomass and are critical to ecosystem function and carbon recovery.

Ultimately, the balance between carbon uptake and storage varies considerably across biomes and wildfire regimes. Further investigation of the molecular and cellular mechanisms that scale up to impact ecosystem carbon trajectories following wildfire will be essential for future research.