Increasing contributions of climate-driven wildfires to nitrogen deposition in the United States

Increasing contributions of climate-driven wildfires to nitrogen deposition in the United States | 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 Article Increasing contributions of climate-driven wildfires to nitrogen deposition in the United States Patrick Campbell, Daniel Tong, Shinkuang Chang, Siqi Ma, Yunyao Li, and 5 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6673143/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 11 Feb, 2026 Read the published version in Communications Earth & Environment → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Climate change continues to alter patterns and trends in weather, landscapes, and composition across the U.S. Recent increases in the frequency and severity of climate-driven wildfires, particularly in the west, has serious ramifications for enhanced downwind reactive nitrogen (Nr) emissions, deposition, and critical load (CL) exceedances. Until now, however, these impacts have only been studied on a relatively short-term, case-by-case basis, with little to no understanding on the impacts of the long-term trends in contributions of climate-driven wildfires to Nr deposition and CLs across terrestrial landscapes such as in the U.S. To address this knowledge gap, here we present a multi-decadal (2002 - 2021), harmonized model-data-driven study using the George Mason University North American Chemical Reanalysis (NACR) system and simulations with both “with-fire” and “without-fire” conditions to quantify the change in trends of fire activity and source contributions to total Nr emissions and deposition over the U.S. Our results show that fire activity has increased substantially in the western U.S., especially in the northwest U.S., and that this increase is associated with positive annual near-surface temperature and vapor pressure deficit anomalies compared to the period average. Major results and implications of this work are increasing trends in the contribution of climate-driven wildfires to higher Nr emissions, deposition, and CL exceedances of up to 20-40% due to fires in the western U.S. Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental sciences/Environmental chemistry/Atmospheric chemistry Earth and environmental sciences/Climate sciences/Atmospheric science/Atmospheric chemistry Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files ClimateDrivenWildfiresandNrDepositionSupplementNatureGeoscience.pdf Supplementary Material Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 11 Feb, 2026 Read the published version in Communications Earth & Environment → 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. 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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-6673143","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":460486445,"identity":"c6dd19f4-d6a4-428e-91e1-cb1e1f01a6dd","order_by":0,"name":"Patrick 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