Wildfires Dynamics in Siberian Larch Forests

Abstract

Wildfire number and burned area temporal dynamics within all of Siberia and along a south-north transect in central Siberia (45˝-73˝N) were studied based on NOAA/AVHRR (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/ Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) and Terra/MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) data and field measurements for the period 1996-2015. In addition, fire return interval (FRI) along the south-north transect was analyzed. Both the number of forest fires and the size of the burned area increased during recent decades (p < 0.05). Significant correlations were found between forest fires, burned areas and air temperature (r = 0.5) and drought index (The Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index, SPEI) (r =´0.43). Within larch stands along the transect, wildfire frequency was strongly correlated with incoming solar radiation (r = 0.91). Fire danger period length decreased linearly from south to north along the transect. Fire return interval increased from 80 years at 62˝N to 200 years at the Arctic Circle (66˝33' N), and to about 300 years near the northern limit of closed forest stands (about 71˝+ N). That increase was negatively correlated with incoming solar radiation (r =´0.95).

Tree density influences ecohydrological drivers of plant–water relations in a larch boreal forest in Siberia

“…Fire frequency and severity in Siberian boreal forests are expected to increase under climate change (Flannigan et al, 2013;Ponomarev, Kharuk, & Ranson, 2016). Landscape heterogeneity in soil moisture, plant productivity, and transpiration may increase as more frequent fires drive variability in tree density across the landscape.…”

Flux of Dissolved and Particulate Low-Temperature Pyrogenic Carbon from Two High-Latitude Rivers across the Spring Freshet Hydrograph

“…The experimentally-derived ratio of levoglucosan to Py-DOC (Norwood et al, 2013), corresponding to each calculated transit time, was used to convert measured levoglucosan concentrations into an estimate of low-temperature Py-DOC in the rivers (Myers-Pigg et al, 2015). Fire locations were assumed to be concentrated at ∼52-53 • N for the Yenisei River (Myers-Pigg et al, 2015;Ponomarev et al, 2016); the range of fire locations from 1980 to 2014 using fire data from the Canadian Forest Service (2016) were used for the Great Whale River ( Figure S1). Error of fire location for each sampling point was propagated for the Py-DOC and Py-POC calculations (Figure 3).…”

Remote Sensing Data for Calibrated Assessment of Wildfire Emissions in Siberian Forests

“…The annual relative burned area varied from 0.3% to more than 10% of the total forested area. The average for Siberia was 1.5%, which was three times greater than the average annual burned area (0.56%) in western Canada [22,24].…”