B059-03
Siberia: An altered landscape that will act to transform the region and Earth

Friday, 11 December 2020: 04:04
Virtual
Amber Jeanine Soja1, Nadezhda M Tchebakova2, Brian J Stocks3, Susan G G Conard4, Emily Gargulinski5, Elena I. Parfenova6, Donald Cahoon Jr.3, Evgeny Shvetsov7, Kyunney Kirillina8, Evgenii I. Ponomarev9, Brendan M Rogers10, Jessica L McCarty11 and Elena A. Kukavskaya12, (1)National Institute of Aerospace, Hampton, VA, United States, (2)V.N.Sukachev Institute of Forest SB RAS, Krasnoyarsk, Russia, (3)B.J. Stocks Wildfire Investigations Ltd., Sault Ste. Marie, ON, Canada, (4)Retired, Washington, DC, United States, (5)NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, United States, (6)Forest Institute of Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Krasnoyarsk, Russia, (7)V.N. Sukachev Institute of Forest of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences- separate subdivision of the FRC KSC SB RAS, Krasnoyarsk, Russia, (8)Keio University, Tokyo, Japan, (9)V.N.Sukachev Institute of Forest SB RAS, Lab. of Forest Monitoring, Krasnoyarsk, Russia, (10)Woods Hole Research Center, Falmouth, MA, United States, (11)Miami University Oxford, Oxford, OH, United States, (12)V.N. Sukachev Institute of Forest of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences - separate subdivision of the FRC KSC SB RAS, Krasnoyarsk, Russia
Recorded Presentation
Abstract:
Changes in climate and weather are forcing transformations across landscapes, particularly at Northern Hemisphere upper latitudes. Temperatures have been increasing at twice the global mean in these boreal and Arctic region.

Landscape modifications at these latitudes are particularly poignant, due to feedbacks with these systems (e.g., permafrost, ecosystems, atmosphere) and with climate. The size and continental extent of Russia makes this region particularly critical, due to its ability to feedback to regional and global systems. For example, the circumboreal zone contains the largest stock of terrestrial carbon on Earth, and Russia stores roughly two-thirds of that carbon, which could result in the potential release of millennia’s of stored carbon. The albedo (relative reflectance) change due to landscape alteration and smoke in the atmosphere is substantial, and this is a direct feedback to the radiation balance.

Fire regimes are predicted to increase in terms of burned area, severity, fire season length and the number of extreme fire seasons, which leads to albedo change and direct and indirect carbon releases. Over the last 4 decades, we have witnessed an approximate doubling of burned area and ~3 times the number of extreme fire seasons. Particularly poignant is the record-breaking > 100 degree temperature in Verhojansk, Sakha, which followed 5 years of record-breaking Siberian temperatures. Sakhan fires burned farther north than is typical in the boreal zone and Arctic tundra, reaching within 10km of the Bay of Laptev. Currently, the Sakhan burned area is about 2 orders of magnitude higher than the mean.

Increased temperatures and fire also results in altered landscapes, re-setting succession, and thawing permafrost. Severe fire can destroy seeds and alter soils ability to sustain seedlings. Permafrost degradation threatens flora, fauna, and infrastructure. Fire enhances continued permafrost degradation by promoting thaw slump and thermokarst development. Also, permafrost thaw increases freshwater flow into the Arctic, thus inhibiting ocean circulation – a major feedback to climate.

The initial signs of climate change and feedbacks from climate change are here and now, not in some distant future.

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