Direct Carbon Emissions from Chinese Forest Fires, 1991～2000

Many studies indicated that the products of biomass burning affect the atmosphere in short and long term. Vegetation burning can produce some gases, which have significant affections on environment, including some greenhouse gases, such as CO2 and CH4 etc. Smoke aerosols produced from biomass burning also change global climate and atmospheric chemistry. The paper calculates the consumed biomass due to forest fires according to the statistics of forest fires from 1991 to 2000 and research results of Chinese forest biomass. During the study period, forest fires burned average 5～7Tg biomass each year and directly emitted carbon 20.24～28.56 Tg, CO2 74.2～104.7 Tg, CH4 1.797～2.536 Tg,smoke aerosols 0.999～1.410 Tg. In 19912000, average emission of carbon dioxide accounts for 2.7～3.9% of the total emission of China (using the data of 2000), CH4 3.3～4.7%.