Biomass Burning and Its Inter-Relationships with the Climate System

JOHN L. INNES University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada The interactions between biomass burning and climate have been brought into focus by a number of recent events. Firstly, the Framework Convention on Climate Change and, more recently, the Kyoto Protocol, have drawn the attention of policy makers and others to the importance of biomass burning in relation to atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. Secondly, the use of prescribed fires has become a major management tool in some countries; with for example the area with fuel treatments (which include prescribed burns and mechanical treatments) having increased on US National Forest System lands from 123,000 ha in 1985 to 677,000 ha in 1998. Thirdly, large numbers of forest fires in Indonesia, Brazil, Australia and elsewhere in 1997 and 1998 received unprecedented media attention. Consequently, it is appropriate that one of the Wengen Workshops on Global Change Research be devoted to the relationships between biomass burning and climate. This volume includes many of the papers presented at the workshop, but is also intended to act as a contribution to the state of knowledge on the int- relationships between biomass burning and climate change. Previous volumes on biomass burning (e. g. Goldammer 1990,Levine 1991a, Crutzen and Goldammer 1993, Levine 1996a, 1996b, Van Wilgen et al. 1997) have stressed various aspects of the biomassclimate issue, and provide a history of the development of our understanding of the many complex relationships that are involved.

Contenu
Biomass Burning and Climate: An Introduction.- Global Biomass Burning: A Case Study of the Gaseous and Particulate Emissions Released to the Atmosphere During the 1997 Fires in Kalimantan and Sumatra, Indonesia.- Modelling the Effect of Landuse Changes on Global Biomass Emissions.- Direct Effects of Fire on the Boreal Forest Carbon Budget.- The Impact of Biomass Burning on the Global Budget of Ozone and Ozone Precursors.- Impact of the 1997 Indonesian Fires on Tropospheric Ozone and its Precursors.- The Relationship Between Area Burned by Wildland Fire in Canada and Circulation Anomalies in the Mid-Troposphere.- Underestimation of GCM-Calculated Short-Wave Atmospheric Absorption in Areas Affected by Biomass burning.- Wildland Fire Detection from Space: Theory and Application.- Climate and Vegetation as Driving Factors in Global Fire Activity.- Modelling the Impact of Vegetation Fires, Detected from NOAA-AVHRR Data, on Tropospheric Chemistry in Tropical Africa.- A Rule-Based System for Burned Area Mapping in Temperate and Tropical Regions Using NOAA/AVHRR Imagery.- Fire Regime Sensitivity to Global Climate Change: An Australian Perspective.- The Interaction Between Forest Fires and Human Activity in Southern Switzerland.- Indirect and Long-Term Effects of Fire on the Boreal Forest Carbon Budget.- Sustainable Forestry as a Source of Bio-energy for Fossil Fuel Substitution.- Managing Smoke in United States Wildlands and Forests: A Challenge for Science and Regulations.- Area Burned Reconstruction and Measurement: A Comparison of Methods.- Interactions Between Biomass Burning and Climate: Conclusions Drawn from the Workshop.