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C emissions into the atmosphere due to fire

Bacciu, V.1, Scarpa, C.1, Pellizzaro, G.1

1 National Research Council of Italy – Institute for the BioEconomy

Last updated: 29/09/2026

Recommended citation:

Bacciu, V., Scarpa, C., & Pellizzaro, G. 2026. C emissions into the atmosphere due to fire. In: Pere Casals, Davide Ascoli, Lena Vilà-Vilardell, Imma Oliveras, Madoka Krick (eds.) 2026. Methods handbook for characterizing fire use behavior, assessing fire effects, and monitoring soil and vegetation responses at the stand level. FIRE-ADAPT project (number 101086416), deliverable D1.1

Indicator

Fire severity: Ecosystem carbon losses

Brief introduction

Seiler and Crutzen (1980) pioneered quantifying carbon (C) emissions from biomass burning (including all vegetation component), establishing a foundational method based on area burned (A, ha), the fuel load (B, Mg ha-1, namely the amount of biomass available for burning), the carbon fraction (FC, %, the fraction of fuel consumed during burning), and the emissions factor (ef, namely the amount of specific trace gas released typical for each vegetational species). This method, which is used extensively globally, has many variations to account for the specifics of various ecosystems and regional patterns of fire distribution.

Method specifications

Method type

Soft

Hard

Method timing

Before
fire

During
fire

After fire 
(short-term)

After fire
(mid-term)

After fire
(long-term)

Field skills

Low

Medium

Hard

Lab skills

Low

Medium

Hard

Material cost

Low

Medium

Hard

Time cost

Low

Medium

Hard

Calculation expertise

Low

Medium

Hard

Equipment

  • Excel spreadsheet 
  • Information concerning burned area and fuel load for different vegetation types (including all vegetation components, e.g., litter, downed woody, herbaceous, shrubland).

Experimental design

NA

Methodology

  1. Define ecosystem subtypes/vegetation types within the key site.
  2. Quantify burned area (A) for each ecosystem subtype/vegetation types.
  3. Estimate total carbon emissions (E) from burned area.
  4. Compute the specific carbon emission (SE) as a weighted sum of ecosystem fractions and their emission components.
  5. The total carbon emissions (TE) for a period of time can be determined as the sum of emissions E from each type of ecosystem.

Calculations

\mathrm{E}\,(Mg)= A \times SE

\begin{array}{l} \textbf{Where:} \\[0.5em] \mathrm{E} = \text{Total C emission} \\ A = \text{Burned area (ha)} \\ SE = \text{Specific C emission}\, (Mg \,ha^{-1}) \end{array}
\mathrm{SE}(\%)= (M \times B_m \times FC_m \times ef_m) + (S \times B_s \times FC_s \times ef_s) + (N \times B_n \times FC_n \times ef_n) 
\begin{array}{l} \textbf{Where:} \\[0.5em] \mathrm{M, S, N} = \text{Different vegetation types (for example)} \\ B^{1} = \text{Biomass available to burn}\, (Mg \,ha^{-1}) \\ FC^{1} = \text{C fraction of the biomass} \\ ef^{1} = \text{Biomass combustion factor} \end{array}

\mathrm{TE}\,(Mg)= \sum_{i=1}^{n} E_i \times N_i

\begin{array}{l} \textbf{Where:} \\[0.5em] \mathrm{TE} = \text{Total C emissions} \\ E_i = \text{Total C emissions from a particular ecosystem type} \\ N_i = \text{Number of fires over the period} \end{array}

1 The FC value for biomass can be set to 0.5, while B and ef should be obtained from the literature. It should be noted that biomass-to-carbon conversion coefficient (FC) values range from 0.42 to 0.5, as reported in the literature. Indeed, an overall average conversion coefficient of 0.5 is widely used for forest ecosystems.

Relation with other methods

This method assumes that live fuel loading is known, either through Destructive sampling or using the Belt transect method.

Data templates

NA

Further information

Seiler, W.; Crutzen, P.J. Estimates of gross and net fluxes of carbon between the biosphere and atmosphere from biomass burning. Clim. Change 1980, 2, 207–247.