WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS
Erdozain and colleagues extracted 17 attributes from 249 fire–carbon studies. The literature disproportionately represents temperate forests and aboveground stocks or combustion emissions, with less attention to African systems, savannas, peatlands, tundra, belowground stores, pyrogenic carbon and post-fire regrowth.
WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ
A satellite-visible burn scar or immediate emitted-carbon estimate is only one part of a carbon trajectory. For land management, accounting must include soil pools, subsequent plant recruitment and time-dependent disturbance regimes, especially where the literature offers weak analogues.
CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY
This is a review of study distribution and methods, not a new global causal estimate that all fire increases or decreases ecosystem carbon. Coverage biases do not themselves determine the direction of fire effects.
SOURCE
Current Forestry Reports — Erdozain et al. (27 Oct 2026)
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