Climate feedback of forest fires amplified by atmospheric chemistry

Climate feedback of forest fires amplified by atmospheric chemistry | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Brief Communication Climate feedback of forest fires amplified by atmospheric chemistry Wei Chen, Yuzhong Zhang, Yufei Zou, Zhen Zhang This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5547668/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 19 Feb, 2026 Read the published version in Nature Geoscience → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Intensified forest wildfires, driven by climate change, release reactive gases that lead to reduced atmospheric oxidation capacity, hence increasing methane levels and amplifying warming. Our integrated analysis of fire and chemistry models projects that additional warming by this mechanism rivals that of wetland methane feedback and fire CO 2 feedback by the 2050s under the intermediate climate pathway. Our finding highlights a critical role of atmospheric chemistry in regulating fire-climate feedback. Earth and environmental sciences/Climate sciences/Atmospheric science/Atmospheric chemistry Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental sciences/Environmental chemistry/Atmospheric chemistry Earth and environmental sciences/Climate sciences/Climate change/Projection and prediction Earth and environmental sciences/Climate sciences/Climate change/Climate-change impacts Earth and environmental sciences/Climate sciences/Climate change/Climate and Earth system modelling Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files WeiChenDraftSI.docx Supplementary Information Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 19 Feb, 2026 Read the published version in Nature Geoscience → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-5547668","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Brief Communication","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":403617934,"identity":"e5942de5-2aea-4275-a89c-90279cbdbbfe","order_by":0,"name":"Wei Chen","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Westlake University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Wei","middleName":"","lastName":"Chen","suffix":""},{"id":403617933,"identity":"5e2e84f9-3e9c-4b99-88f1-962f4f311672","order_by":1,"name":"Yuzhong Zhang","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5431-5022","institution":"Westlake university","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yuzhong","middleName":"","lastName":"Zhang","suffix":""},{"id":403617935,"identity":"08cf6399-56ba-4fc0-a3be-ca68fa2358f1","order_by":2,"name":"Yufei Zou","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Science and Technology of China","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yufei","middleName":"","lastName":"Zou","suffix":""},{"id":403617936,"identity":"4dd80598-f086-442f-928b-9cd3f254f73c","order_by":3,"name":"Zhen Zhang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Zhen","middleName":"","lastName":"Zhang","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-11-29 09:00:15","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5547668/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5547668/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-026-01926-1","type":"published","date":"2026-02-19T05:00:00+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":103053394,"identity":"dd1ed038-ac18-4b1a-baf3-5eb47be22456","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-02-20 08:13:52","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":610853,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"WeiChenDraftmain.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5547668/v1_covered_551960bf-73d1-4b81-8404-c06dc25e9c56.pdf"},{"id":74374784,"identity":"110c2a56-2ab9-4fed-9f5e-3da05017a28f","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-01-21 16:56:55","extension":"docx","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":777217,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Supplementary Information","description":"","filename":"WeiChenDraftSI.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5547668/v1/4cba586bdf3893380f270a60.docx"}],"financialInterests":"There is \u003cb\u003eNO\u003c/b\u003e Competing Interest.","formattedTitle":"Climate feedback of forest fires amplified by atmospheric chemistry","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nature-portfolio","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Nature Portfolio","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":false,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5547668/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5547668/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eIntensified forest wildfires, driven by climate change, release reactive gases that lead to reduced atmospheric oxidation capacity, hence increasing methane levels and amplifying warming. 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