Canadian Forest Service Publications
Detecting the effect of climate change on Canadian forest fires. 2004. Gillett, N.P.; Weaver, A.J.; Zwiers, F.W.; Flannigan, M.D. Geophysical Research Letters 31 (18), L18211: 1 -4.
Year: 2004
Issued by: Great Lakes Forestry Centre
Catalog ID: 24957
Language: English
Availability: Order paper copy (free)
Available from the Journal's Web site. †
DOI: 10.1029/2004GL020876
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Abstract
The area burned by forest fires in Canada has increased over the past four decades, at the same time as summer season temperatures have warmed. Here we use output from a coupled climate model to demonstrate that human emissions of greenhouse gases and sulfate aerosol have made a detectable contribution to this warming. We further show that human-induced climate change has had a detectable influence on the area burned by forest fire in Canada over recent decades. This increase in area burned is likely to have important implications for terrestrial emissions of carbon dioxide and for forest ecosystems