Soil Temperature in Disturbed Ecosystems of Central Siberia: Remote Sensing Data and Numerical Simulation

Abstract

We investigated changes in the temperature regime of post-fire and post-technogenic cryogenic soils of Central Siberia using remote sensing data and results of numerical simulation. We have selected the time series of satellite data for two variants of plots with disturbed vegetation and on-ground cover: natural ecosystems of post-fire plots and post-technogenic plots with reclamation as well as dumps without reclamation. Surface thermal anomalies and temperature in soil horizons were evaluated from remote data and numerical simulation and compared with summarized experimental data. We estimated the influence of soil profile disturbances on the temperature anomalies forming on the surface and in soil horizons based on the results of heat transfer modeling in the soil profile. According to remote sensing data, within 20 years, the thermal insulation properties of the vegetation cover restore in the post-fire areas, and the relative temperature anomaly reaches the level of background values. In post-technogenic plots, conditions are more “contrast” comparing to the background, and the process of the thermal regime restoration takes a longer time (>60 years). Forming “neo-technogenic ecosystems” are distinct in special thermal regimes of soils that differ from the background ones both in reclamated and in non-reclamated plots. An assumption was made of the changes in the moisture content regime as the main factor causing the long-term existence of thermal anomalies in the upper soil horizons of disturbed plots. In addition, we discussed the formation of transition zones (“ecotones”) along the periphery of the disturbed plots due to horizontal heat transfer.

Forests burnability in Siberian subregion and post-fire effects according to modern and retrospective satellite surveys

“…It was found that after the fire, the value of the NDVI indicator decreases by up to 75% relative to the norm (undisturbed adjacent areas). This is consistent with the results of studies for other objects [13,14]. An additional characteristic was obtained based on the results of processing NDWI data, which characterizes the degree of moisture availability of sites.…”

Permafrost modelling with OpenFOAM®: New advancements of the permaFoam solver

“…: [25,59]). Fast-increasing economic activity in cold regions is also impacted by climate change [14,51,46,2,23,50,24], and may generate itself important impacts on permafrost at local scale [57,47,33]. Overall the evolution of permafrost in changing environmental conditions is of primary importance [38].…”

Classification of Fire Damage to Boreal Forests of Siberia in 2021 Based on the dNBR Index

“…Satellite data are important for determining the degree of forest disturbance [8,9], for calculating direct fire emissions [10], monitoring the post-fire state of soils [11,12], and vegetation cover and their restoration [13,14]. Of particular interest is the problem of identifying post-fire mortality and restoration of tree stands.…”

“…There is also a method for detecting the stage of restoration of vegetation cover in areas after natural, anthropogenic, or human-made impacts by analyzing temperature anomalies of the underlying surface based on satellite imagery in the thermal IR spectral range [12,20].…”