Fires in UK peatlands are supercharged carbon emissions as climate change causes hotter and drier summers

A new study led by the University of Cambridge reveals that as our springs and summers become hotter and drier, the UK’s wildfire season has grown and strengthened. More fires take more months to release more carbon into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.

Fires in carbon-rich peatlands can almost double the world’s fire-driven carbon emissions. Researchers have reported that only a quarter of the total UK land area burning annually, and despite the fact that Moore and Heathland are war emulsified, peatland fires have been in the UK since 2001. It has been discovered that it causes up to 90% of its fire-driven carbon emissions. Dry years.

Peat only burns when it is hot and dry. There are conditions that occur frequently due to climate change. Peak district Saddleworthmoor and Flo Country peatlands in northern Scotland have been affected by huge wildfires in recent years.

Researchers say leaving the land wet can play an important role in helping land managers achieve net-zero climate targets. This reduces the chances of severe fires and associated high carbon emissions.

Unlike Heather Mooreland, which takes up to 20 years to regrow after a fire, burned peatlands can re-accumulate over centuries. This loss of valuable carbon stores has led to an increase in wildfire frequency in peatlands, which is a real source of concern.

Researchers also calculated that warming the planet at 2°C would likely increase carbon emissions from British peatland fires by at least 60%.

Findings that are widely related to temperate climate peatlands are published in the Environmental Research Documents.

“We found that the Peteland fires are responsible for the unbalanced amount of carbon emissions caused by the UK wildfires, which we expect to increase even more with climate change,” the author of the study.

He said, “Petland will re-export lost carbon very slowly as this process recovers after wildfires as it is re-wetted as it is limited to climate change mitigation. And we need to focus on making sure peat doesn’t burn in the first place.”

Researchers have reported that between 1 to 4 months from 2011 to 2016, six to nine months from 2017 to 2017 to 2021, and the UK’s “fire season” has been in place since 2011. I discovered it was dramatically extended. This change is particularly pronounced in Scotland, where nearly half of British fires occur.

9% of the UK is covered in peatlands, and in healthy conditions it removes more than 3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.

Researchers estimate that between 2001 and 2021, 800,000 tonnes of carbon was released from a British peatland fire. The 2018 Saddleworth Moor fire emitted 24,000 metres of carbon, and the 2019 Flow Country Fire emitted 96,000 metres of carbon from fuel peat.

To obtain the results, researchers mapped all British wildfires over 20 years. They assessed where it burns, the amount of carbon released, and how climate change is affecting fires.

This included a combination of data on fire location, vegetation type and carbon content, soil moisture, and peat depth. Using UK MET Office data, the team also used simulated climatic conditions to predict how UK wildfires will change in the future.

This study only considered land where wildfires had occurred in the past, and did not consider future increases in combustion areas that are likely to occur with hotter and drier British summers.

Land managers need to be incentivized to re-wet peatlands to protect the carbon they are stored. Researchers say this isn’t easy, but it may have a big impact.

“Buffering UK peatlands with extremely hot and dry summers is a great way to reduce carbon emissions as part of our goal of reaching net zero. Humans are encouraged to do that. When I receive it, I can do something incredible,” Pellegrini said.

The average 5,600 hectares of Moor and Heathland burn in the UK compared to 2,500 hectares of peatland each year.