Peatland Wildfire Severity and Post-fire Gaseous Carbon Fluxes

Gray, Alan; Davies, G. Matt; Domènech, Rut; Taylor, Emily S.; Levy, Peter

doi:10.1007/s10021-020-00545-0

Cited by 13 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…However, the ability for a peatland to recover the quantity of carbon lost within the fire return interval depends not only on the capacity to reinitiate soil organic carbon accumulation but also on the amount of carbon released through smouldering, closely tied to the hydrogeological setting (Ingram, Moore, Wilkinson, Petrone, & Waddington, 2019). Further, a warming climate regime may result in changes to the likelihood of high‐severity burns (Krawchuk et al, 2009), where burn severity may be a key control on the recovery time required for peatlands to transition back to C sinks post‐fire (Gray, Davies, Domènech, Taylor, & Levy, 2020), through limitation of evaporative water loss associated with burned surface hydrophobicity (Kettridge et al, 2015) and changes to the surface thermal regime (Morison, Petrone, Wilkinson, Green, & Waddington, 2020). Shortened fire cycles in the WBP (increase peatland fire frequency) will likely result in changes to the C biogeochemical function of low‐lying peatlands (Wieder et al, 2009), but the direction or magnitude of this change is relatively unknown.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deeper burning in a boreal fen peatland 1‐year post‐wildfire accelerates recovery trajectory of carbon dioxide uptake

et al. 2021

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Peatlands contain a globally significant store (30%) of soil carbon (C). Within the Canadian Western Boreal Plains, where peatlands are a dominant feature, the climate is becoming warmer and drier, coupled with an increase in forest fire incidence. The response of peatlands to forest fire is likely to be a key determinant in the future of C storage of Boreal peatlands. This study examined the impacts of fire on key environmental controls on CO2 fluxes at the plot‐scale (using static chambers) between burned and unburned understory vegetation throughout the growing season of 2017 in a treed fen impacted by the Horse River wildfire (2016) in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. Both gross ecosystem productivity (GEP) and total respiration (Rtot) were less at burned plots compared with unburned. Temporal patterns varied between the plots, where both component of CO2 fluxes at the unburned plots were largest in June, whereas at the burned plots, CO2 fluxes peaked in the late growing season. GEP and net ecosystem exchange (NEE) showed a positive relationship with depth of burn, with the deepest burned areas showing significantly greater CO2 uptake, coinciding with both increased bioavailable phosphorus and greater moss recolonization. At the unburned plots, soil temperature was a dominant control on CO2 fluxes. This work demonstrates the importance of the depth of burn to post‐fire carbon fluxes and how a knowledge of burn severity and depth can inform understanding of the recovery trajectory of northern peatlands following fire disturbance.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deeper burning in a boreal fen peatland 1‐year post‐wildfire accelerates recovery trajectory of carbon dioxide uptake

et al. 2021

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“…Other approaches for burn severity evaluation [25], based on fire effects on the soil compartment, have already shown the capacity of visual indicators and Composite Burn Index (CBI) values to reflect changes in soil biophysical properties. Indeed, several studies [89][90][91] have revealed that using individual visual indicators, such as soil organic depth, together with semiquantitative metrics, such as the CBI, has proven to be useful in the assessment of other soil characteristics, such as changes in carbon storage after combustion. Future research should focus on developing accurate remote sensing methodologies that allow a better understanding of the integrated environmental impacts of forest fires on soils.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping Soil Burn Severity at Very High Spatial Resolution from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Beltrán-Marcos

Suárez‐Seoane

Fernández‐Guisuraga

et al. 2021

Forests

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The evaluation of the effect of burn severity on forest soils is essential to determine the impact of wildfires on a range of key ecological processes, such as nutrient cycling and vegetation recovery. The main objective of this study was to assess the potentiality of different spectral products derived from RGB and multispectral imagery collected by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at very high spatial resolution for discriminating spatial variations in soil burn severity after a heterogeneous wildfire. In the case study, we chose a mixed-severity fire that occurred in the northwest (NW) of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain) in 2019 that affected 82.74 ha covered by three different types of forests, each dominated by Pinus pinaster, Pinus sylvestris, and Quercus pyrenaica. We evaluated soil burn severity in the field 1 month after the fire using the Composite Burn Soil Index (CBSI), as well as a pool of five individual indicators (ash depth, ash cover, fine debris cover, coarse debris cover, and unstructured soil depth) of easy interpretation. Simultaneously, we operated an unmanned aerial vehicle to obtain RGB and multispectral postfire images, allowing for deriving six spectral indices. Then, we explored the relationship between spectral indices and field soil burn severity metrics by means of univariate proportional odds regression models. These models were used to predict CBSI categories, and classifications were validated through confusion matrices. Results indicated that multispectral indices outperformed RGB indices when assessing soil burn severity, being more strongly related to CBSI than to individual indicators. The Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) was the best-performing spectral index for modelling CBSI (R2cv = 0.69), showing the best ability to predict CBSI categories (overall accuracy = 0.83). Among the individual indicators of soil burn severity, ash depth was the one that achieved the best results, specifically when it was modelled from NDWI (R2cv = 0.53). This work provides a useful background to design quick and accurate assessments of soil burn severity to be implemented immediately after the fire, which is a key factor to identify priority areas for emergency actions after forest fires.

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“…Even though wildfires occur much less frequently than prescribed burns, owing to their size and severity, they lead to far greater losses of C, including from peat. Finally, any assessment of burning impacts on carbon / GHG emissions must also consider methane fluxes, especially given the recent evidence that suggests low-severity fires may suppress peatland methane emissions (Davidson et al 2019;Gray et al 2020) and mowing or unmanaged sites might emit far more methane (Heinemeyer et al 2019c).…”

Section: Habitat State Of Peatlands -Favourable Vs Unfavourable Condition (Degraded Modified Intact State)mentioning

confidence: 99%

An outline summary document of the current knowledge about prescribed vegetation burning impacts on ecosystem services compared to alternative mowing or no management

Heinemeyer¹,

Ashby²

2021

Preprint

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A lay summary of our discussion paper: A critical review of the IUCN UK Peatland Programme’s “Burning and Peatlands” position statement (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13157-021-01400-1). In short, we discuss the prescribed burning on blanket bog evidence base and its interpretation within a UK context - specifically in relation to the International Union for Conservation of Nature UK Peatland Programme "Burning and Peatlands” position statement published in 2020, and with reference to management alternatives (cutting and a cessation of management).

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Peatland Wildfire Severity and Post-fire Gaseous Carbon Fluxes

Abstract: There may be differences between this version and the publisher's version. You are advised to consult the publisher's version if you wish to cite from this article.

Cited by 13 publications

References 61 publications

Deeper burning in a boreal fen peatland 1‐year post‐wildfire accelerates recovery trajectory of carbon dioxide uptake

Deeper burning in a boreal fen peatland 1‐year post‐wildfire accelerates recovery trajectory of carbon dioxide uptake

Mapping Soil Burn Severity at Very High Spatial Resolution from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

An outline summary document of the current knowledge about prescribed vegetation burning impacts on ecosystem services compared to alternative mowing or no management

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