Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 8-28.
Panoramic northward overview of the eastern margin of East Devils Lake (see Color Plate 8-28). The
former shoreline stands with dead trees on left side; shallow lake and marsh toward right were created by rising
water of the last few years. East Devils Lake was a separate lake in the past, but is now joined with Devils Lake.
Blimp aerial photograph by J.S. Aber, W. Jacobson and S. Salley, October 2003.
control cattails and other emergent vegetation
in prairie marshes (Fig. 8-30).
In other situations, i re is quite destructive
for wetlands, as demonstrated by recent peat
i res in Indonesia. Peat i res spread during the
1997 El Niño event and recurred in 2002 and
2004, particularly in Central Kalimantan (Indo-
nesian portion of the island of Borneo). These
i res were exacerbated by ongoing conversions
of forested peatland to cropland for the Mega-
Rice Project, which began in 1995 and involved
deep drainage and the use of i re for quick
forest clearance. The amount of carbon released
by Indonesian peat i res in 1997 alone is esti-
mated to represent 1000 to 2000 years of carbon
accumulation and was the greatest single emis-
sion of atmospheric CO
2
since records began in
1957 (Page et al. 2002).
The potential climatic impact of i re is mixed.
Release of carbon dioxide from burning forest
and peat enhances the greenhouse effect,
whereas increased soot and ash in the atmos-
phere increases the albedo with a possible
cooling effect. Certainly warm, drought condi-
tions promote wetland i res, as seen during the
summer of 2010 in Russia, when smoldering
Bubyan
Island
Kuwait
Bay
Figure 8-29.
Smoke plumes drift toward the southwest
from oil-i eld i res started during the Kuwait War.
Image courtesy of K. Lulla, NASA Johnson Space
Center. Photo ID: STS37-73-047, April 1991.
