Wildfires in the Siberian taiga

Харук, В. И.; Пономарев, Е. И.; Иванова, Г. А.; Dvinskaya, Maria L.; Coogan, Sean C. P.; Flannigan, Mike D.

doi:10.1007/s13280-020-01490-x

Cited by 152 publications

(191 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…These young forests are especially prevalent in areas of intensive forestries, such as the industrial plantations of Scandinavia, as well as areas recovering from wildfire. The latter is corroborated by reports of increasing frequency and area of burns in Siberia since the end of the 20 th century 42 , the demographic effect of which is reflected in an increasing proportion of recovering forest < 20 years old.…”

Section: Distribution Of Boreal Forest Agesupporting

confidence: 54%

“…However, several factors could yet reduce the offset of forest expansion on a temperaturemediated increase in respiratory fluxes, including: the temperature effect itself can be temperature dependent 46 , sink capacity eventually decreases with age 47 , thawing of carbon locked in permafrost will accelerate respiration 48 , and changes in fire regimes and wood harvest could overshadow stocking from forest development 3,42 . It also remains unclear to what extent the expansion of trees, with longer lived carbon pools than herbaceous vegetation, can be structurally sustained by boreal soils 49 , or on how disturbed area might increase from human activity.…”

Section: The Carbon Impact Of Young Forestsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Northward migration of the boreal forest confirmed by satellite record

Feng¹,

Sexton²,

Wang³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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The boreal forest is one of Earth’s most climatologically sensitive regions, and changes in the cover and structure of its vegetation pose a positive carbon-climate feedback on atmospheric greenhouse warming. The region has also experienced more than three times climatological warming of any forested biome in recent decades. While ecological models predict a northward shift of boreal tree cover in response to climate change, comprehensive data have not been available to test the hypothesis. Here we report a test of the magnitude, direction, and significance of changes in the boreal canopy based on the longest and highest-resolution record of calibrated satellite maps to date. The boreal canopy increased in density and shifted northward from 1984 to 2020, with the largest and most significant gains in its northern latitudes. Net forest gains occurred despite stable rates of disturbance across all but the region’s southernmost latitudes, implicating widespread release of climatological limitation on growth over changing distribution of fire, harvest, insect, and other disturbances. These new forests will sequester carbon as they mature, increasing its residence time in woody biomass, and will play a key role in how the terrestrial biosphere attenuates atmospheric CO2 increases.

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Section: Distribution Of Boreal Forest Agesupporting

confidence: 54%

Section: The Carbon Impact Of Young Forestsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Northward migration of the boreal forest confirmed by satellite record

Feng¹,

Sexton²,

Wang³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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“…It is estimated that the post-fire effects have an "accumulative" character [26,27] on the area up to 20% of boreal forests of Siberian and can stay significant for 15 years [11,27]. This factor is likely to increase in the future [28]. Anomalous heating of the surface is also observed for post-technogenic areas (open pit mining, quarries, overburden dumps, logging, etc.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Ponomareva

Litvintsev

Finnikov

et al. 2021

Forests

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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.

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“…. The share of ignitions caused by lightning strikes is nowadays approximately 8% of all wildland fires in Sweden and 13% in Finland Larjavaara et al, 2005b), but it may increase due to climate warming (Kharuk et al, 2021). However, even nowadays lightning plays an important role in fire ignition in many areas, such as in Russian or Canadian boreal forests (Kourtz and Todd, 1991;.…”

Section: The Occurrence Of Forest Fires Depends On Characteristics Ofmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change and forest management affect forest fire risk in Fennoscandia

Aalto¹,

Venäläinen²

2021

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Forest and wildland fires are a natural part of ecosystems worldwide, but large fires in particular can cause societal, economic and ecological disruption. Fires are an important source of greenhouse gases and black carbon that can further amplify and accelerate climate change. In recent years, large forest fires in Sweden demonstrate that the issue should also be considered in other parts of Fennoscandia. This final report of the project “Forest fires in Fennoscandia under changing climate and forest cover (IBA ForestFires)” funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, synthesises current knowledge of the occurrence, monitoring, modelling and suppression of forest fires in Fennoscandia. The report also focuses on elaborating the role of forest fires as a source of black carbon (BC) emissions over the Arctic and discussing the importance of international collaboration in tackling forest fires. The report explains the factors regulating fire ignition, spread and intensity in Fennoscandian conditions. It highlights that the climate in Fennoscandia is characterised by large inter-annual variability, which is reflected in forest fire risk. Here, the majority of forest fires are caused by human activities such as careless handling of fire and ignitions related to forest harvesting. In addition to weather and climate, fuel characteristics in forests influence fire ignition, intensity and spread. In the report, long-term fire statistics are presented for Finland, Sweden and the Republic of Karelia. The statistics indicate that the amount of annually burnt forest has decreased in Fennoscandia. However, with the exception of recent large fires in Sweden, during the past 25 years the annually burnt area and number of fires have been fairly stable, which is mainly due to effective fire mitigation. Land surface models were used to investigate how climate change and forest management can influence forest fires in the future. The simulations were conducted using different regional climate models and greenhouse gas emission scenarios. Simulations, extending to 2100, indicate that forest fire risk is likely to increase over the coming decades. The report also highlights that globally, forest fires are a significant source of BC in the Arctic, having adverse health effects and further amplifying climate warming. However, simulations made using an atmospheric dispersion model indicate that the impact of forest fires in Fennoscandia on the environment and air quality is relatively minor and highly seasonal. Efficient forest fire mitigation requires the development of forest fire detection tools including satellites and drones, high spatial resolution modelling of fire risk and fire spreading that account for detailed terrain and weather information. Moreover, increasing the general preparedness and operational efficiency of firefighting is highly important. Forest fires are a large challenge requiring multidisciplinary research and close cooperation between the various administrative operators, e.g. rescue services, weather services, forest organisations and forest owners is required at both the national and international level.

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Wildfires in the Siberian taiga

Cited by 152 publications

References 73 publications

Northward migration of the boreal forest confirmed by satellite record

Northward migration of the boreal forest confirmed by satellite record

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

Climate change and forest management affect forest fire risk in Fennoscandia

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