Zombie forest fires are on the rise. According to a study in the journal Nature, fires in far northern forests that smolder throughout the wet, cold winters and pop up again in the spring could become more common because of climate change. That presents challenges — but also opportunities — for fire management, and for minimizing the release of greenhouse gases, the researchers say. Most of us think of forest fires as being contained within a single year. …But in the Arctic-boreal forests of Alaska, Siberia, Canada’s Northwest Territories and similar landscapes, fires can burn deep into the carbon-rich soil where they linger and lurk, often undetected. …The phenomenon has remained somewhat mysterious. The new study sets out to find how common the fires are, where they are and how to detect them. …In Alaska, Dr. Veraverbeke noted, only 10 percent of carbon emissions from fires comes from trees; 90 percent comes from burning soil. [We respect the copyrights of the source publication – full access may require a subscription]