Wildfire seasons are increasing in length and one of the reasons for this is the Earth's ever-changing climate, a new study has found.
As climate is said to significantly affect wildfires all around the world, the recent incidents may implicate the presence of changes in pyrogeographic properties due to the fire weather.
Ecologist and fire scientist Matt Jolly from the U.S. Forest Service and colleagues conducted the study by looking at three data sets describing the daily climate all around the world, as well as three indicators of fire danger. This method enabled them to a create a simple metric that can monitor the length of the fire weather season in a year. The researchers were also able to outline spatio-temporal movement starting from 1979 all the way to 2013.
The findings of the study, published in the journal Nature Communications, show that there is a significant lengthening of fire weather seasons across 25.3 percent of the planet's vegetated lands, leading to the elevation of mean fire season duration by up to 18.7 percent.
The locations, which have become prone to burning due to the long periods of fire weather, also increased by 108.1 percent. During the second phase of the study, the researchers also discovered that the frequency of long fire weather seasons increased at a global level by up to 53.4 percent. The persistence of such weather trends, together with the continuous presence of ignition sources and usage of fuel, among many others, could widely affect international ecosystems, economies, societies and most particularly, global climates.
The researchers were also able to discover that the marked expansion of wildfire hazards may be associated with the capabilities of nature, particularly of plants, to remove carbon out of the atmosphere. This may then augment global warming, which in the first place is the reason for such wildfire changes, a term the scientists called "positive feedback."
Wildfires are crucial to the mechanisms of both land and atmospheric environments. Fires help maintain flammable ecosystems all around the world in clearing forests, enhancing foraging and providing fresh plant sources. However, some may need to be inhibited as they can cost human safety and property.
In the U.S., the government has spent about $1.7 billion to suppress wildfires every year over the past decade. In Canada, the annual expense for wildfire suppression is approximately $1 billion.
The entire costs of suppression, preparedness and other services associated with wildfire management, including the associated economic liabilities, may be higher than these reported numbers. With this, it is crucial to fully understand the factors that amplify fire season changes so that wildfires may be dealt with utmost efficiency
