Controlling the burning of the natural environment helps offset our carbon emissions

This discovery points to a new way of manipulating the world's natural carbon capture and storage capacity, which also helps maintain natural ecosystem processes

"The use of controlled burning in forests to reduce the severity of future wildfires is a relatively well-known process

He added: “The fires in most natural ecosystems around the world are controllable, so we should see this as an opportunity

Fires will burn the plant matter and organic layers in the soil, and in severe wildfires, this will cause carbon erosion and leaching

Fire stabilizes the carbon in the soil in several ways

"When the frequency and intensity of fires are right, ecosystems can store large amounts of carbon

When fires are too frequent or too severe—as often happens in densely-vegetated forests—they will burn all the dead plant matter, otherwise the matter will decompose and release carbon into the soil

Without fire, the carbon in the soil would be recycled-organic matter in plants is consumed by microorganisms and released in the form of carbon dioxide or methane

Scientists say that ecosystems can also be managed to increase the amount of carbon stored in the soil

"When considering how to manage ecosystems to capture and store carbon in the atmosphere, fires are often seen as a bad thing

The focus of this research is on the carbon stored in the topsoil, that is, soils with a depth of less than 30 cm

This research was funded by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation

Journal Reference :

1. Adam FA Pellegrini, Jennifer Harden, Katerina Georgiou, Kyle S.