Siberian taiga and tundra fire regimes from 2001–2020
Circum-boreal and -tundra systems are crucial carbon pools that are experiencing amplified warming and are at risk of increasing wildfire activity. Changes in wildfire activity have broad implications for vegetation dynamics, underlying permafrost soils, and ultimately, carbon cycling. However, unde...
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac3f07 https://doaj.org/article/fe43f6dbda9841449d17d14a522b1e90 |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:fe43f6dbda9841449d17d14a522b1e90 2023-09-05T13:17:48+02:00 Siberian taiga and tundra fire regimes from 2001–2020 Anna C Talucci Michael M Loranty Heather D Alexander 2022-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac3f07 https://doaj.org/article/fe43f6dbda9841449d17d14a522b1e90 EN eng IOP Publishing https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac3f07 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ac3f07 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/fe43f6dbda9841449d17d14a522b1e90 Environmental Research Letters, Vol 17, Iss 2, p 025001 (2022) wildfire Siberia taiga tundra fire regimes climate warming Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 article 2022 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac3f07 2023-08-13T00:36:48Z Circum-boreal and -tundra systems are crucial carbon pools that are experiencing amplified warming and are at risk of increasing wildfire activity. Changes in wildfire activity have broad implications for vegetation dynamics, underlying permafrost soils, and ultimately, carbon cycling. However, understanding wildfire effects on biophysical processes across eastern Siberian taiga and tundra remains challenging because of the lack of an easily accessible annual fire perimeter database and underestimation of area burned by MODIS satellite imagery. To better understand wildfire dynamics over the last 20 years in this region, we mapped area burned, generated a fire perimeter database, and characterized fire regimes across eight ecozones spanning 7.8 million km ^2 of eastern Siberian taiga and tundra from ∼61–72.5° N and 100° E–176° W using long-term satellite data from Landsat, processed via Google Earth Engine. We generated composite images for the annual growing season (May–September), which allowed mitigation of missing data from snow-cover, cloud-cover, and the Landsat 7 scan line error. We used annual composites to calculate the difference Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) for each year. The annual dNBR images were converted to binary burned or unburned imagery that was used to vectorize fire perimeters. We mapped 22 091 fires burning 152 million hectares (Mha) over 20 years. Although 2003 was the largest fire year on record, 2020 was an exceptional fire year for four of the northeastern ecozones resulting in substantial increases in fire activity above the Arctic Circle. Increases in fire extent, severity, and frequency with continued climate warming will impact vegetation and permafrost dynamics with increased likelihood of irreversible permafrost thaw that leads to increased carbon release and/or conversion of forest to shrublands. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic permafrost taiga Tundra Siberia Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Environmental Research Letters 17 2 025001 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
wildfire Siberia taiga tundra fire regimes climate warming Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
spellingShingle |
wildfire Siberia taiga tundra fire regimes climate warming Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 Anna C Talucci Michael M Loranty Heather D Alexander Siberian taiga and tundra fire regimes from 2001–2020 |
topic_facet |
wildfire Siberia taiga tundra fire regimes climate warming Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
description |
Circum-boreal and -tundra systems are crucial carbon pools that are experiencing amplified warming and are at risk of increasing wildfire activity. Changes in wildfire activity have broad implications for vegetation dynamics, underlying permafrost soils, and ultimately, carbon cycling. However, understanding wildfire effects on biophysical processes across eastern Siberian taiga and tundra remains challenging because of the lack of an easily accessible annual fire perimeter database and underestimation of area burned by MODIS satellite imagery. To better understand wildfire dynamics over the last 20 years in this region, we mapped area burned, generated a fire perimeter database, and characterized fire regimes across eight ecozones spanning 7.8 million km ^2 of eastern Siberian taiga and tundra from ∼61–72.5° N and 100° E–176° W using long-term satellite data from Landsat, processed via Google Earth Engine. We generated composite images for the annual growing season (May–September), which allowed mitigation of missing data from snow-cover, cloud-cover, and the Landsat 7 scan line error. We used annual composites to calculate the difference Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) for each year. The annual dNBR images were converted to binary burned or unburned imagery that was used to vectorize fire perimeters. We mapped 22 091 fires burning 152 million hectares (Mha) over 20 years. Although 2003 was the largest fire year on record, 2020 was an exceptional fire year for four of the northeastern ecozones resulting in substantial increases in fire activity above the Arctic Circle. Increases in fire extent, severity, and frequency with continued climate warming will impact vegetation and permafrost dynamics with increased likelihood of irreversible permafrost thaw that leads to increased carbon release and/or conversion of forest to shrublands. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Anna C Talucci Michael M Loranty Heather D Alexander |
author_facet |
Anna C Talucci Michael M Loranty Heather D Alexander |
author_sort |
Anna C Talucci |
title |
Siberian taiga and tundra fire regimes from 2001–2020 |
title_short |
Siberian taiga and tundra fire regimes from 2001–2020 |
title_full |
Siberian taiga and tundra fire regimes from 2001–2020 |
title_fullStr |
Siberian taiga and tundra fire regimes from 2001–2020 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Siberian taiga and tundra fire regimes from 2001–2020 |
title_sort |
siberian taiga and tundra fire regimes from 2001–2020 |
publisher |
IOP Publishing |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac3f07 https://doaj.org/article/fe43f6dbda9841449d17d14a522b1e90 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic permafrost taiga Tundra Siberia |
genre_facet |
Arctic permafrost taiga Tundra Siberia |
op_source |
Environmental Research Letters, Vol 17, Iss 2, p 025001 (2022) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac3f07 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ac3f07 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/fe43f6dbda9841449d17d14a522b1e90 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac3f07 |
container_title |
Environmental Research Letters |
container_volume |
17 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
025001 |
_version_ |
1776198826233692160 |