
The fire covered more than 400 square miles on the North Slope of Alaska's Brooks Range and 2.1 million metric tons of carbon was released in the fire. It was twice the size the amount of greenhouse gases generated by Miami in one year. The fire not only inserted greenhouse gases into the atmosphere but it also consumed 30 percent up of the insulating layer of the organic matter that protects moss covered landscape. Arctic tundra stores large amounts of carbon in cool, wet soils insulated by permafrost, a layer of permanently frozen ground.
"When the permafrost warms, microbes will begin to decompose that organic matter and could release even more carbon that's been stored in the permafrost for hundreds or thousands of years into the atmosphere," Mack said. "If that huge stock of carbon is released, it could increase atmospheric carbon dioxide drastically."
The study revealed how isolated fires can have massive impact, said University of Alaska biology professor Terry Chapin. "When you think about the massive carbon stocks and massive area of tundra throughout the world, and its increasing vulnerability to fire as climate warms, it suggests that fire may become the dominant factor that governs the future carbon balance of this biome," Chapin said....
The village of Anaktuvuk Pass in 1969
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