Description: Idealized models or emulators of volcanic aerosol forcing have been widely used to reconstruct the spatiotemporal evolution of past volcanic forcing. However, existing models, including the most recently developed Easy Volcanic Aerosol (EVA; Toohey et al., doi: 10.5194/gmd‐2016‐83), (i) do not account for the height of injection of volcanic SO urn:x-wiley:jgrd:media:jgrd55987:jgrd55987-math-0001; (ii) prescribe a vertical structure for the forcing; and (iii) are often calibrated against a single eruption. We present a new idealized model, EVA_H, that addresses these limitations. Compared to EVA, EVA_H makes predictions of the global mean stratospheric aerosol optical depth that are (i) similar for the 1979–1998 period characterized by the large and high‐altitude tropical SO urn:x-wiley:jgrd:media:jgrd55987:jgrd55987-math-0002 injections of El Chichón (1982) and Mount Pinatubo (1991); (ii) significantly improved for the 1998–2015 period characterized by smaller eruptions with a large variety of injection latitudes and heights. Compared to EVA, the sensitivity of volcanic forcing to injection latitude and height in EVA_H is much more consistent with results from climate models that include interactive aerosol chemistry and microphysics, even though EVA_H remains less sensitive to eruption latitude than the latter models. We apply EVA_H to investigate potential biases and uncertainties in EVA‐based volcanic forcing data sets from phase 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6). EVA and EVA_H forcing reconstructions do not significantly differ for tropical high‐altitude volcanic injections. However, for high‐latitude or low‐altitude injections, our reconstructed forcing is significantly lower. This suggests that volcanic forcing in CMIP6 last millenium experiments may be overestimated for such eruptions.

Description: Climate change, historical fire suppression and a rise in human movements in urban-forest boundaries have resulted in an increased use of long-term fire retardant (LTFR). While LTFR is an effective fire-fighting tool, it contains high concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus, and little is known how this nutrient pulse affects terrestrial ecosystems. We used field surveys and greenhouse experiments to quantify effects of LTFR on plant productivity, community composition, and plant interactions with the ubiquitous root symbiont arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). In the field, LTFR applications were associated with persistent shifts in plant communities toward exotic annuals with little or no dependency of AMF. Plants exposed to LTFR were less colonized by AMF, both in field surveys and in the greenhouse, and this was most likely due to the substantial and persistent increase in soil available phosphorus. All plants grew bigger with LTFR in the greenhouse, but the invasive annual cheatgrass ( Bromus tectorum ) benefitted most. While LTFR can control fires, it may cause long-term changes in soil nutrient availabilities, disrupt plant interactions with beneficial soil microbes and exasperate invasion by some exotic plants. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.