Fire effects on soil CH₄ and N₂O fluxes across terrestrial ecosystems

Fire, as a natural disturbance, significantly shapes and influences the functions and services of terrestrial ecosystems via biotic and abiotic processes. Comprehending the influence of fire on soil greenhouse gas dynamics is crucial for understanding the feedback mechanisms between fire disturbances and climate change. Despite work on CO₂ fluxes, there is a large uncertainty as to whether and how soil CH₄ and N₂O fluxes change in response to fire disturbance in terrestrial ecosystems. To narrow this knowledge gap, we performed a meta-analysis synthesizing 3615 paired observations from 116 global studies. Our findings revealed that fire increased global soil CH₄ uptake in uplands by 23.2 %, soil CH₄ emissions from peatlands by 74.7 %, and soil N₂O emissions in terrestrial ecosystems (including upland and peatland) by 18.8 %. Fire increased soil CH₄ uptake in boreal, temperate, and subtropical forests by 20.1 %, 38.8 %, and 30.2 %, respectively, and soil CH₄ emissions in tropical forests by 193.3 %. Additionally, fire negatively affected soil total carbon (TC; -10.3 %), soil organic carbon (SOC; -15.6 %), microbial biomass carbon (MBC; -44.8 %), dissolved organic carbon (DOC; -27 %), microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN; -24.7 %), soil water content (SWC; -9.2 %), and water table depth (WTD; -68.2 %). Conversely, the fire increased soil bulk density (BD; +10.8 %), ammonium nitrogen (NH₄⁺-N; +46 %), nitrate nitrogen (NO₃^--N; +54 %), pH (+4.4 %), and soil temperature (+15.4 %). Our meta-regression analysis showed that the positive effects of fire on soil CH₄ and N₂O emissions were significantly positively correlated with mean annual temperature (MAT) and mean annual precipitation (MAP), indicating that climate warming will amplify the positive effects of fire disturbance on soil CH₄ and N₂O emissions. Taken together, since higher future temperatures are likely to prolong the fire season and increase the potential of fires, this could lead to positive feedback between warming, fire events, CH₄ and N₂O emissions, and future climate change.