Biomass burning increase in Southeast Asia is dominated by char black carbon

Wenhuai Song; Ying Zhang; Meng Gao; Feng Xie; Fang Cao; Martin Rauber; Sawaeng Kawichai; Tippawan Prapamontol; Sönke Szidat; Yiran Peng; Gregory R. Carmichael; Yan-Lin Zhang

doi:10.1038/s43247-026-03431-0

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Biomass burning increase in Southeast Asia is dominated by char black carbon

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Biomass burning increase in Southeast Asia is dominated by char black carbon

Wenhuai Song, Ying Zhang, Meng Gao, Feng Xie, Fang Cao, Martin Rauber, Sawaeng Kawichai, Tippawan Prapamontol, Sönke Szidat, Yiran Peng, …

Communications earth & environment, Vol.7(1), 359

03/28/2026

DOI: 10.1038/s43247-026-03431-0

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Abstract

Biomass burning emits black carbon, a climate-active aerosol, with poorly constrained climate effects—models capture only 30% of observed black carbon in Southeast Asia. Here we use thermal-optical analysis and radiocarbon source attribution to separate black carbon into char and soot. We find model underestimation arises from missing char-rich emissions, which drive over 90% of regional biomass burning-related black carbon increases. Char has lower mass absorption efficiency than soot, yet most models assign soot-like optical properties to all black carbon. Constraining simulations revises regional direct radiative forcing from 1.95 W m−2 (baseline) to 4.51 W m−2 (mass correction) and 3.71 W m−2 (mass and optical correction). Global analysis reveals nonlinearity: rising biomass burning boosts black carbon loading but reduces its absorption efficiency via char dominance, partially offsetting radiative forcing. This underscores the need to represent black carbon subtypes and their optical properties for accurate climate impact assessments.

Details

Title: Subtitle: Biomass burning increase in Southeast Asia is dominated by char black carbon
Creators: Wenhuai Song - University of Bern
Ying Zhang - Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology
Meng Gao - Hong Kong Baptist University
Feng Xie - Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology
Fang Cao - Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology
Martin Rauber - University of Bern
Sawaeng Kawichai - Chiang Mai University
Tippawan Prapamontol - Chiang Mai University
Sönke Szidat - University of Bern
Yiran Peng
Gregory R. Carmichael - University of Iowa
Yan-Lin Zhang - Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Communications earth & environment, Vol.7(1), 359
DOI: 10.1038/s43247-026-03431-0
ISSN: 2662-4435
eISSN: 2662-4435
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
Grant note: China Postdoctoral Science Foundation: 2024M761468 National Natural Science Foundation of China (National Science Foundation of China): 42192512
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number: 42192512) and Thailand Science Research and Innovation (TSRI, formerly the Thailand Research Fund, TRF) (grant number: RDG 6030019). The authors would also like to thank the Jiangsu Funding Program for Excellent Postdoctoral Talent (grant number: 2024ZB425), and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (grant number: 2024M761468).
Language: English
Date published: 03/28/2026
Academic Unit: Civil and Environmental Engineering; Nursing; Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
Record Identifier: 9985149571902771

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