Grasslands fires top source of global carbon emissions: study

(ECNS) -- Grassland wildfires released 1.21 billion metric tons of carbon from 2020 to 2022, accounting for 46.7 percent of the total annual emissions of 2.59 billion metric tons, ranking first in global carbon emissions, according to research data from the Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Chinese scientists quantified global carbon emissions of biomass combustion and built a daily emission inventory of high-resolution biomass combustion carbon emissions utilizing fire spot monitoring data of the Fengyun 3D polar-orbiting meteorological satellite.

The relevant article was recently published in the journal of Earth System Science Data.

The study found that grassland fires were followed by bushfires and tropical forest fires, which accounted for 33.0 percent and 12.1 percent of total emissions, respectively, said Liu Yang, a researcher from Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The results also show global average annual biomass burning carbon emissions from different regions: Southern Africa has the highest biomass burning carbon emissions, reaching 850 million metric tons per year followed by southern South America at 530 million metric tons per year, northern Africa at 390 million metric tons per year, and Southeast Asia at 200 million metric tons per year.

The Fengyun-3 series of satellites is a second-generation Chinese polar-orbiting meteorological satellite system. The high accuracy and global coverage of the Fengyun-3 satellite provide strong support for the study, highlighting the huge potential of Chinese satellites in terms of global service capabilities, and contributing valuable forces to global climate change governance and sustainable development.

Biomass combustion is an important source of global carbon emissions, including forest fires, grassland fires, bush fires and crop straw burning. An effective calculation of carbon emissions from biomass combustion is of great significance to the carbon cycle of terrestrial ecosystem and atmospheric carbon concentration.