Subarctic Wildfire Activity Is Heating Up (highest in 10,00 yr)

[NickB79]

http://news.yahoo.com/subarctic-wildfire-activity-heating-190404252.html

Subarctic wildfire frequency is higher now than it has been at any other point in the last 10,000 years, new records show.

The records, obtained from charcoal in the Yukon Flats of Alaska, have revealed the history of wildfire activity in the region known as the subarctic, the area just south of the Arctic Circle, from North America to Scandinavia and Siberia, where boreal forests dominate and winters are long and dark.

But what the higher frequency of wildfires spells for the subarctic in a warmer future world is difficult to predict, researchers say.

"The climate is predicted to get warmer, and this favors more fires," said Ryan Kelly, a plant biologist at the University of Illinois who examined the records. On the other hand, the spike in wildfires is transforming Alaska's coniferous forests into woodlands made up of relatively fire-resistant deciduous trees. In the past, this shift resulted in a kind of vegetative feedback that put the breaks on additional burnings.

Can you say "feedback", boys and girls? I know you can.

[pscot]

1. We are in deep shit

and still we dig.