The Impact of Availability Territory and Terrain Characteristics on Location of Burnt Areas in Dark Coniferous Forests Pechora-Ilych Nature Reserve

Abstract

Fires – one of the most important factors in catastrophic transformation of natural forest cover. Destroying whole ecosystems, fires, at the same time, start long-term succession processes. The study of the causes of fires makes a significant contribution to understanding structural and functional organization and dynamics of modern forests. The article examines the impact of availability of the territory and landscape-topographical features on the distribution and size of burnt areas formed in the last 150 years, in the foothill area of Pechora-Ilych Nature Reserve. The peculiarity of the territory is a complete lack of roads; the only roads are the rivers: Pechora, Ilych and their major tributaries. Analysis of the location of burned areas showed that significant influence on the occurrence of fire is provided by proximity of navigable rivers, since the greatest number of fires during studied period occurred at a distance of up to 3 km from navigable rivers, along which local population actively explores the territory (building of hunting shacks, gathering pine nuts, selective logging, etc.). Size of the fire is connected with proximity to navigable rivers: the largest fires is confined to the river banks and are likely to be only of anthropogenic origin. Small fires occurred at different distances from navigable rivers, could be both natural and anthropogenic ones. Settlements that existed before the formation of reserve had substantial and statistically significant effect on the occurrence of fire. Statistically significant associations of burnt areas with absolute altitude (the vast majority of burned areas are located on surfaces below 400 m) indirectly confirms that fires occurred at intensively developed parts of forests along the rivers.