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  • Modeling long-term fire impact on ecosystem characteristics and surface energy using a process-based vegetation–fire model SSiB4/TRIFFID-Fire v1.0
Title: Modeling long-term fire impact on ecosystem characteristics and surface energy using a process-based vegetation–fire model SSiB4/TRIFFID-Fire v1.0
Abstract. Fire is one of the primary disturbances to the distribution and ecologicalproperties of the world's major biomes and can influence the surface fluxesand climate through vegetation–climate interactions. This study incorporatesa fire model of intermediate complexity to a biophysical model with dynamicvegetation, SSiB4/TRIFFID (The Simplified Simple Biosphere Model coupledwith the Top-down Representation of Interactive Foliage and Flora IncludingDynamics Model). This new model, SSiB4/TRIFFID-Fire, updating fire impact onthe terrestrial carbon cycle every 10 d, is then used to simulate theburned area during 1948–2014. The simulated global burned area in 2000–2014is 471.9 Mha yr−1, close to the estimate of 478.1 Mha yr−1 inGlobal Fire Emission Database v4s (GFED4s), with a spatial correlation of0.8. The SSiB4/TRIFFID-Fire reproduces temporal variations of the burnedarea at monthly to interannual scales. Specifically, it captures theobserved decline trend in northern African savanna fire and accuratelysimulates the fire seasonality in most major fire regions. The simulatedfire carbon emission is 2.19 Pg yr−1, slightly higher than the GFED4s(2.07 Pg yr−1). The SSiB4/TRIFFID-Fire is applied to assess the long-term fire impact onecosystem characteristics and surface energy budget by comparing model runswith and without fire (FIRE-ON minus FIRE-OFF). The FIRE-ON simulationreduces tree cover over 4.5 % of the global land surface, accompanied bya decrease in leaf area index and vegetation height by 0.10 m2 m−2and 1.24 m, respectively. The surface albedo and sensible heat are reducedthroughout the year, while latent heat flux decreases in the fire season butincreases in the rainy season. Fire results in an increase in surfacetemperature over most fire regions.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1849654
NSF-PAR ID:
10249262
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Geoscientific Model Development
Volume:
13
Issue:
12
ISSN:
1991-9603
Page Range / eLocation ID:
6029 to 6050
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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