Increasing Fuel Loads, Fire Hazard, and Carbon Emissions from Fires in Central Siberia
The vast Angara region, with an area of 13.8 million ha, is located in the southern taiga of central Siberia, Russia. This is one of the most disturbed regions by both fire and logging in northern Asia. We have developed surface and ground fuel-load maps by integrating satellite and ground-based dat...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:604978345df94760a4d7f10b495c6aa8 2023-05-15T18:30:58+02:00 Increasing Fuel Loads, Fire Hazard, and Carbon Emissions from Fires in Central Siberia Elena A. Kukavskaya Evgeny G. Shvetsov Ludmila V. Buryak Pavel D. Tretyakov Pavel Ya. Groisman 2023-02-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3390/fire6020063 https://doaj.org/article/604978345df94760a4d7f10b495c6aa8 EN eng MDPI AG https://www.mdpi.com/2571-6255/6/2/63 https://doaj.org/toc/2571-6255 doi:10.3390/fire6020063 2571-6255 https://doaj.org/article/604978345df94760a4d7f10b495c6aa8 Fire, Vol 6, Iss 63, p 63 (2023) boreal forests Angara region fires clearcuts surface and ground fuels fuel-load maps Physics QC1-999 article 2023 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3390/fire6020063 2023-02-26T01:30:24Z The vast Angara region, with an area of 13.8 million ha, is located in the southern taiga of central Siberia, Russia. This is one of the most disturbed regions by both fire and logging in northern Asia. We have developed surface and ground fuel-load maps by integrating satellite and ground-based data with respect to the forest-growing conditions and the disturbance of the territory by anthropogenic and natural factors (fires and logging). We found that from 2001 to 2020, fuel loads increased by 8% in the study region, mainly due to a large amount of down woody debris at clearcuts and burned sites. The expansion of the disturbed areas in the Angara region resulted in an increase in natural fire hazards in spring and summer. Annual carbon emissions from fires varied from 0.06 to 6.18 Mt, with summer emissions accounting for more than 95% in extreme fire years and 31–68% in the years of low fire activity. While the trend in the increase in annual carbon emissions from fires is not statistically significant due to its high interannual variability and a large disturbance of the study area, there are significantly increasing trends in mean carbon emissions from fires per unit area (p < 0.005) and decadal means ( p < 0.1). In addition, we found significant trends in the increase in emissions released by severe fires ( p < 0.005) and by fires in wetter, dark, coniferous (spruce, p < 0.005 and Siberian pine, p < 0.025) forests. This indicates deeper burning and loss of legacy carbon that impacts on the carbon cycle resulting in climate feedback. Article in Journal/Newspaper taiga Siberia Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Fire 6 2 63 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
boreal forests Angara region fires clearcuts surface and ground fuels fuel-load maps Physics QC1-999 |
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boreal forests Angara region fires clearcuts surface and ground fuels fuel-load maps Physics QC1-999 Elena A. Kukavskaya Evgeny G. Shvetsov Ludmila V. Buryak Pavel D. Tretyakov Pavel Ya. Groisman Increasing Fuel Loads, Fire Hazard, and Carbon Emissions from Fires in Central Siberia |
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boreal forests Angara region fires clearcuts surface and ground fuels fuel-load maps Physics QC1-999 |
description |
The vast Angara region, with an area of 13.8 million ha, is located in the southern taiga of central Siberia, Russia. This is one of the most disturbed regions by both fire and logging in northern Asia. We have developed surface and ground fuel-load maps by integrating satellite and ground-based data with respect to the forest-growing conditions and the disturbance of the territory by anthropogenic and natural factors (fires and logging). We found that from 2001 to 2020, fuel loads increased by 8% in the study region, mainly due to a large amount of down woody debris at clearcuts and burned sites. The expansion of the disturbed areas in the Angara region resulted in an increase in natural fire hazards in spring and summer. Annual carbon emissions from fires varied from 0.06 to 6.18 Mt, with summer emissions accounting for more than 95% in extreme fire years and 31–68% in the years of low fire activity. While the trend in the increase in annual carbon emissions from fires is not statistically significant due to its high interannual variability and a large disturbance of the study area, there are significantly increasing trends in mean carbon emissions from fires per unit area (p < 0.005) and decadal means ( p < 0.1). In addition, we found significant trends in the increase in emissions released by severe fires ( p < 0.005) and by fires in wetter, dark, coniferous (spruce, p < 0.005 and Siberian pine, p < 0.025) forests. This indicates deeper burning and loss of legacy carbon that impacts on the carbon cycle resulting in climate feedback. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Elena A. Kukavskaya Evgeny G. Shvetsov Ludmila V. Buryak Pavel D. Tretyakov Pavel Ya. Groisman |
author_facet |
Elena A. Kukavskaya Evgeny G. Shvetsov Ludmila V. Buryak Pavel D. Tretyakov Pavel Ya. Groisman |
author_sort |
Elena A. Kukavskaya |
title |
Increasing Fuel Loads, Fire Hazard, and Carbon Emissions from Fires in Central Siberia |
title_short |
Increasing Fuel Loads, Fire Hazard, and Carbon Emissions from Fires in Central Siberia |
title_full |
Increasing Fuel Loads, Fire Hazard, and Carbon Emissions from Fires in Central Siberia |
title_fullStr |
Increasing Fuel Loads, Fire Hazard, and Carbon Emissions from Fires in Central Siberia |
title_full_unstemmed |
Increasing Fuel Loads, Fire Hazard, and Carbon Emissions from Fires in Central Siberia |
title_sort |
increasing fuel loads, fire hazard, and carbon emissions from fires in central siberia |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/fire6020063 https://doaj.org/article/604978345df94760a4d7f10b495c6aa8 |
genre |
taiga Siberia |
genre_facet |
taiga Siberia |
op_source |
Fire, Vol 6, Iss 63, p 63 (2023) |
op_relation |
https://www.mdpi.com/2571-6255/6/2/63 https://doaj.org/toc/2571-6255 doi:10.3390/fire6020063 2571-6255 https://doaj.org/article/604978345df94760a4d7f10b495c6aa8 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/fire6020063 |
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Fire |
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6 |
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63 |
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