Circumpolar spatio-temporal patterns and contributing climatic factors of wildfire activity in the Arctic tundra from 2001–2015
Recent years have seen an increased frequency of wildfire events in different parts of Arctic tundra ecosystems. Contemporary studies have largely attributed these wildfire events to the Arctic’s rapidly changing climate and increased atmospheric disturbances (i.e. thunderstorms). However, existing...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:45d643c6ad5548e3aef67d74a461a00b 2023-09-05T13:16:40+02:00 Circumpolar spatio-temporal patterns and contributing climatic factors of wildfire activity in the Arctic tundra from 2001–2015 Arif Masrur Andrey N Petrov John DeGroote 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa9a76 https://doaj.org/article/45d643c6ad5548e3aef67d74a461a00b EN eng IOP Publishing https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa9a76 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aa9a76 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/45d643c6ad5548e3aef67d74a461a00b Environmental Research Letters, Vol 13, Iss 1, p 014019 (2018) tundra wildfire climate feedback circumpolar Arctic climate variability climate change Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 article 2018 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa9a76 2023-08-13T00:37:31Z Recent years have seen an increased frequency of wildfire events in different parts of Arctic tundra ecosystems. Contemporary studies have largely attributed these wildfire events to the Arctic’s rapidly changing climate and increased atmospheric disturbances (i.e. thunderstorms). However, existing research has primarily examined the wildfire–climate dynamics of individual large wildfire events. No studies have investigated wildfire activity, including climatic drivers, for the entire tundra biome across multiple years, i.e. at the planetary scale. To address this limitation, this paper provides a planetary/circumpolar scale analyses of space-time patterns of tundra wildfire occurrence and climatic association in the Arctic over a 15 year period (2001–2015). In doing so, we have leveraged and analyzed NASA Terra’s MODIS active fire and MERRA climate reanalysis products at multiple temporal scales (decadal, seasonal and monthly). Our exploratory spatial data analysis found that tundra wildfire occurrence was spatially clustered and fire intensity was spatially autocorrelated across the Arctic regions. Most of the wildfire events occurred in the peak summer months (June–August). Our multi-temporal (decadal, seasonal and monthly) scale analyses provide further support to the link between climate variability and wildfire activity. Specifically, we found that warm and dry conditions in the late spring to mid-summer influenced tundra wildfire occurrence, spatio-temporal distribution, and fire intensity. Additionally, reduced average surface precipitation and soil moisture levels in the winter–spring period were associated with increased fire intensity in the following summer. These findings enrich contemporary knowledge on tundra wildfire’s spatial and seasonal patterns, and shed new light on tundra wildfire–climate relationships in the circumpolar context. Furthermore, this first pan-Arctic analysis provides a strong incentive and direction for future studies which integrate multiple datasets (i.e. climate, fuels, ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change Tundra Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Merra ENVELOPE(12.615,12.615,65.816,65.816) Environmental Research Letters 13 1 014019 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
tundra wildfire climate feedback circumpolar Arctic climate variability climate change Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
spellingShingle |
tundra wildfire climate feedback circumpolar Arctic climate variability climate change Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 Arif Masrur Andrey N Petrov John DeGroote Circumpolar spatio-temporal patterns and contributing climatic factors of wildfire activity in the Arctic tundra from 2001–2015 |
topic_facet |
tundra wildfire climate feedback circumpolar Arctic climate variability climate change Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
description |
Recent years have seen an increased frequency of wildfire events in different parts of Arctic tundra ecosystems. Contemporary studies have largely attributed these wildfire events to the Arctic’s rapidly changing climate and increased atmospheric disturbances (i.e. thunderstorms). However, existing research has primarily examined the wildfire–climate dynamics of individual large wildfire events. No studies have investigated wildfire activity, including climatic drivers, for the entire tundra biome across multiple years, i.e. at the planetary scale. To address this limitation, this paper provides a planetary/circumpolar scale analyses of space-time patterns of tundra wildfire occurrence and climatic association in the Arctic over a 15 year period (2001–2015). In doing so, we have leveraged and analyzed NASA Terra’s MODIS active fire and MERRA climate reanalysis products at multiple temporal scales (decadal, seasonal and monthly). Our exploratory spatial data analysis found that tundra wildfire occurrence was spatially clustered and fire intensity was spatially autocorrelated across the Arctic regions. Most of the wildfire events occurred in the peak summer months (June–August). Our multi-temporal (decadal, seasonal and monthly) scale analyses provide further support to the link between climate variability and wildfire activity. Specifically, we found that warm and dry conditions in the late spring to mid-summer influenced tundra wildfire occurrence, spatio-temporal distribution, and fire intensity. Additionally, reduced average surface precipitation and soil moisture levels in the winter–spring period were associated with increased fire intensity in the following summer. These findings enrich contemporary knowledge on tundra wildfire’s spatial and seasonal patterns, and shed new light on tundra wildfire–climate relationships in the circumpolar context. Furthermore, this first pan-Arctic analysis provides a strong incentive and direction for future studies which integrate multiple datasets (i.e. climate, fuels, ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Arif Masrur Andrey N Petrov John DeGroote |
author_facet |
Arif Masrur Andrey N Petrov John DeGroote |
author_sort |
Arif Masrur |
title |
Circumpolar spatio-temporal patterns and contributing climatic factors of wildfire activity in the Arctic tundra from 2001–2015 |
title_short |
Circumpolar spatio-temporal patterns and contributing climatic factors of wildfire activity in the Arctic tundra from 2001–2015 |
title_full |
Circumpolar spatio-temporal patterns and contributing climatic factors of wildfire activity in the Arctic tundra from 2001–2015 |
title_fullStr |
Circumpolar spatio-temporal patterns and contributing climatic factors of wildfire activity in the Arctic tundra from 2001–2015 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Circumpolar spatio-temporal patterns and contributing climatic factors of wildfire activity in the Arctic tundra from 2001–2015 |
title_sort |
circumpolar spatio-temporal patterns and contributing climatic factors of wildfire activity in the arctic tundra from 2001–2015 |
publisher |
IOP Publishing |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa9a76 https://doaj.org/article/45d643c6ad5548e3aef67d74a461a00b |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(12.615,12.615,65.816,65.816) |
geographic |
Arctic Merra |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Merra |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Tundra |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Tundra |
op_source |
Environmental Research Letters, Vol 13, Iss 1, p 014019 (2018) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa9a76 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aa9a76 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/45d643c6ad5548e3aef67d74a461a00b |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa9a76 |
container_title |
Environmental Research Letters |
container_volume |
13 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
014019 |
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1776198164611596288 |