Zombie fires lurk in the Arctic

Rising temperatures have caused smoldering "zombie fires" that threaten Arctic ecosystems and could release vast amounts of greenhouse gases  A startling new discovery has been made about the ongoing wildfires in the Arctic: zombie fires, also known as holdover fires, which occur when previous seasons’ fires do not completely die, but smolder in the carbon-rich peat underground over the winter — often reigniting as wildfires when spring arrives.  "We know little about the consequences of holdover fires in the Arctic, except that they represent momentum in the climate system and…