Satellite image of Anaktuvuk River Fire from Sept. 25, 2007 (NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center)

New findings from the 2007 Anaktuvuk River Fire revealed just how much carbon was  released into the atmosphere from this single fire and the potential role tundra fire disturbances play in feedbacks driving global climate change.

“The amount of carbon released into the atmosphere from this fire is equivalent to the amount of carbon stored by the global tundra biome,” said lead author Michelle Mack, a biologist from the University of Florida. “This was a boreal forest-sized fire.” (Quote from Science Daily)

Check out these news articles and the recently published journal article on carbon loss and the Anaktuvuk River Fire.

• Carbon Loss from an Unprecedented Arctic Tundra Wildfire (Nature, 475, 489-492, 28 July 2011)

• Largest Recorded Tundra Fire Yields Scientific Surprises (Science Daily: July 27, 2011)

• Tundra Fires Could Accelerate Climate Warming (Science Daily: July 27, 2011)

• 2007 Arctic wildfire released 50 years of stored carbon into atmosphere (Alaska Dispatch: July 28, 2011)

Project Website: Arctic LTER – Fire in the Arctic Landscape: Impacts, interactions and links to global and regional environmental change

Link to full size image above: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=19139