Wildfires

Smouldering peat fires may contribute to climate change

New research into smouldering wildfires in the UK has found that they could be a contributor to climate change. A team from the University of Glasgow’s School of Interdisciplinary Studies, studied an area in the Scottish Highlands that had a peat fire which lasted for longer than a month. The wildfires kill all vegetation and effectively sterilise the area.

Wildfires can have impacts that last decades if not centuries. Peat fires, such as the one in this study can also release significant amounts of stored carbon. Based on their measurements, they estimated that in total, the smouldering wildfire burnt between 0.1% and 0.3% of the estimated total amount of carbon sequestered annually by UK peatlands. This means that even small events of this nature can release significant quantities of carbon.