UK's first 'megafire' released 1,000-year-old carbon from peat
L'essentiel
- A wildfire in Scotland last year, dubbed the UK's first 'megafire', burned for four days, releasing 1,000-year-old carbon from peat soils.
- Researchers noted the fire's extreme size and impact, releasing carbon equivalent to 85% of average annual UK fire emissions.
Résumé généré par IA
Pourquoi c'est important
A wildfire that burned for four days across parts of the Highlands and Moray last year has been identified as the UK's first 'megafire' by researchers. The term 'megafire' is used in the US to describe fires that are extreme in size, behaviour, and impact. This fire released greenhouse gases trapped in peat soils for 1,000 years.
A wildfire that burned for four days across parts of the Highlands and Moray last year was the UK's first megafire, researchers say.
They said the fire on Dava Moor almost torched as much land as typically burns across the UK in an entire year.
It also released planet-warming greenhouse gases that had been trapped deep in peat soils for 1,000 years.
"Megafire" is a term used in the US to describe fires that are extreme in size, behaviour and impacts on land and people.
The fire in a vast area of moorland around Grantown-on-Spey and Forres started on 28 June.
It came just days after a wildfire at nearby Carrbridge which reignited on multiple occasions times over 11 days before being fully extinguished.
Scottish Land and Estates (SLE) estimated that together the wildfires burned 29,225 acres (11,827 hectares) - an area almost 30 times bigger than Lanarkshire's Strathclyde Park.
The new research was led by scientists at Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, which is part of California's Stanford University.
Experts affiliated with universities in England and the Netherlands were also involved, and some of the funding for the study came from the UK Space Agency and the US space agency Nasa.
Researchers, who combined fieldwork with satellite data, suggested that "unusually dry conditions" and "flammable vegetation" enabled the fire to burn deep peat soils.
They said the wildfire released carbon equivalent to 85% of the average annual emissions from fires across the UK from 2001 to 2021.
Adam Pellegrini, an assistant professor of Earth system science, said: "Peatlands are found all over Earth, from the tropics to the Arctic Circle, and they each have distinctive characteristics and vulnerabilities when it comes to climate change.
"The outbreak of the Dava Moor fire gave us a unique opportunity to study one of these fire-impacted peatlands up close."
He added: "This study demonstrates why there needs to be more attention paid to preserving peatlands and addressing wildfires in areas where peatlands have served as long-term carbon reservoirs."
Questions ouvertes
- What specific measures are being proposed to preserve peatlands and address wildfires in these areas?
- What is the long-term impact of this megafire on the local ecosystem?
- Are there plans for further research into peatland fires in the UK and globally?
