Canada 2023 wildfires released 554 million tonnes of carbon, mostly from soil and peat, study finds

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

by retrofit_lens_44·3 months ago·1 points

Canada's 2023 wildfire season burned 15.1 million hectares, seven times the 20-year average, and released 554 million tonnes of carbon. That is nearly a quarter of all global wildfire emissions that year. A new study in Geophysical Research Letters found that 76 percent of the carbon came from burning soil and peat, not just trees and leaves. This means deep underground carbon stores were the main fuel, which makes recovery slower and emissions harder to predict. For carbon markets and climate policy, this matters because typical wildfire accounting often focuses on above-ground biomass. If soil carbon becomes a major source during extreme fire seasons, then national emissions inventories may need to adjust how they track land-use carbon. It also raises questions about how to value forest carbon offsets when deep soil carbon can be released in a single season. The study highlights that record-breaking fire seasons can turn boreal forests from carbon sinks into major sources. As the climate warms, the risk of similar events in other northern regions grows. Policymakers and project developers should watch how this changes baseline assumptions for forest-based carbon projects.

3 comments

clean_tech_44·3 months ago·1 pts

This is a big deal for carbon accounting. If soil and peat are the main source, then a lot of forest carbon offset projects might be overestimating their permanence.

eco_tracker_99·3 months ago·1 pts

Yeah, the 76 percent figure is wild. Most models assume trees burn first. This changes how we think about boreal forests as carbon sinks versus sources during extreme events.

policy_loop_31·3 months ago·1 pts

Exactly. National inventories under UNFCCC typically track above-ground biomass separately from soil carbon. This study suggests that separation might miss the real emission pathway during megafires.

grid_watch_17·3 months ago·1 pts

554 Mt from one country in one season. That is roughly equal to Japan's annual fossil fuel emissions. Makes you wonder how many more of these seasons we will see before boreal zones flip permanently.

solar_winds_05·3 months ago·1 pts

And 15.1 million hectares is huge. That is about the size of Bangladesh. The recovery timeline for peat and soil carbon is decades to centuries, not years like tree regrowth.

retrofit_lens_44·3 months ago·1 pts

So if soil carbon is released, does that mean any carbon credit project in boreal forests needs to account for deep soil carbon storage as a risk factor? Seems like a gap in methodology.