Based on the number of acres burned, 2015 is shaping up to be the second most extreme fire year in North America's boreal region in this decade, even though, in the past, the area has had one or fewer extreme fire years per decade. This season, 15 million acres burned in Alaska and Canada, according to Michelle Mack, researcher and biological sciences professor at Northern Arizona University, who is leading a NASA-funded project to measure the severe fire impacts in North America called the Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment, or ABoVE .This project aims to answer the question; Will more fires and hotter fires burn the thick organic layer on the surface of the ice comprised of litter and soil and release it to the atmosphere? This layer, known as Permafrost, consists mainly of stored organic carbon, and since it burns easily when thawed, could accelerate a positive feedback cycle between arctic ecosystems and global climate, increasing the amount of wildfires and causing arctic ice to melt faster. Snow reduces fire risk by keeping areas cold and damp. If less snow accumulates, there will be nothing to stop the summer sun from drying out the tundra and the permafrost layer below it. Such a feedback cycle would be disastrous to our environment and to the remaining ice on our earth's surface.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/08/13/climate-change-alaska-wildfires/31203153/
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151022095725.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/08/13/climate-change-alaska-wildfires/31203153/
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151022095725.htm