Detecting the effect of climate change on Canadian forest fires

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Zwiers, F.W.
  • Gillett, N.P.
  • Flannigan, M.D.
  • Weaver, A.J.

• 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.

• Date created

  2004

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Wildland fire
  • Area
  • Reexamination
  • Boreal forests
  • Suppression
  • Models

• Type of Item

  Article (Published)

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3H12V97C

• License

  © 2004 American Geophysical Union. This version of this article is open access and can be downloaded and shared. The original author(s) and source must be cited.