Warming Drives "Death Spiral" In Alpine Areas By Replacing Forest With Flammable Scrub
Global warming is creating a vicious feedback loop that could increase the number of wildfires in alpine areas, scientists have warned.
After fire sweeps through an area, it can effectively clears the land and the researchers found the first species to recolonise it were woody shrubs. A wildfire was found to increase the rate of new shrub seedlings by up to 33 times in a study of the Australian Alps. Unfortunately such plants are much more flammable than tussock grass and other types of plants found in similar environments.
Writing in the journal Global Change Biology the scientists said: “In alpine and tundra environments, temperatures, shrub cover and the frequency and severity of fire have all increased in the last few decades. These changes mean that the warming-shrub-fire feedback identified here is likely to have already strengthened.
“If this is the case, other non-woody communities will become shrubbier and more flammable, the effects of which, will have significant consequences for carbon sequestration [such as attempts to absorb carbon from the atmosphere by growing trees or plants], water supply and biodiversity.”
EDIT
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/global-warming-wildfire-climate-change-environment-alpine-areas-australia-alps-fire-plants-flammable-a7517686.html
