Satellite Observational Evidence of Contrasting Changes in Northern Eurasian Wildfires from 2003 to 2020
Wildfires play a critical role in re-shaping boreal ecosystems and climate. It was projected that, owing to the Arctic amplification, boreal wildfires would become more frequent and severe in the coming decades. Although provoking concern, the spatiotemporal changes in boreal wildfires remain unclea...
Published in: | Remote Sensing |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , |
Format: | Text |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
2022
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14174180 |
id |
ftmdpi:oai:mdpi.com:/2072-4292/14/17/4180/ |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftmdpi:oai:mdpi.com:/2072-4292/14/17/4180/ 2023-08-20T04:04:14+02:00 Satellite Observational Evidence of Contrasting Changes in Northern Eurasian Wildfires from 2003 to 2020 Jiaxin Tian Xiaoning Chen Yunfeng Cao Feng Chen agris 2022-08-25 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14174180 EN eng Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs14174180 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Remote Sensing; Volume 14; Issue 17; Pages: 4180 Northern Eurasia wildfire changes Arctic amplification spatiotemporal analysis Text 2022 ftmdpi https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14174180 2023-08-01T06:13:04Z Wildfires play a critical role in re-shaping boreal ecosystems and climate. It was projected that, owing to the Arctic amplification, boreal wildfires would become more frequent and severe in the coming decades. Although provoking concern, the spatiotemporal changes in boreal wildfires remain unclear, and there are substantial inconsistencies among previous findings. In this study, we performed a comprehensive analysis to determine the spatiotemporal changes in wildfires over Northern Eurasia (NEA) from 2003 to 2020 using a reconstructed Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) active fire product. We found that wildfires in NEA exhibited contrasting changes in different latitudinal zones, land cover types, and seasons from 2003 to 2020. Cropland wildfires, mainly distributed at low latitudes (50–60°N), considerably decreased by 81% during the study period. Whereas forest wildfires ignited at high latitudes (north of 60°N) have nearly tripled (increasing at rate of 11~13% per year) during the past two decades. The southwestern and northeastern NEA regions exhibited contrasting patterns of wildfire changes. The active fire counts in the southwestern NEA decreased by 90% at a rate of 0.29(±0.12) × 105 per year, with cropland fires contributing to ~66% of the decrease. However, the fire counts in the northeastern NEA increased by 292% at a rate of 0.23(±0.12) × 105 per year, with boreal forests contributing to ~97% of the increase. It is worth noting that the contrasting changes in wildfires during the past two decades have led to significant structural alternation in the NEA wildfire composition. Forest fires, contributing over 60% of the total fire counts in NEA nowadays, have become the predominant component of the NEA wildfires. The contrasting changes in NEA wildfires imply that more forest fires may emerge in far northern regions of the North Hemisphere as the Arctic becomes progressively warmer in the coming decades. As wildfires continue to increase, more gases and aerosols would be released to ... Text Arctic MDPI Open Access Publishing Arctic Remote Sensing 14 17 4180 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
MDPI Open Access Publishing |
op_collection_id |
ftmdpi |
language |
English |
topic |
Northern Eurasia wildfire changes Arctic amplification spatiotemporal analysis |
spellingShingle |
Northern Eurasia wildfire changes Arctic amplification spatiotemporal analysis Jiaxin Tian Xiaoning Chen Yunfeng Cao Feng Chen Satellite Observational Evidence of Contrasting Changes in Northern Eurasian Wildfires from 2003 to 2020 |
topic_facet |
Northern Eurasia wildfire changes Arctic amplification spatiotemporal analysis |
description |
Wildfires play a critical role in re-shaping boreal ecosystems and climate. It was projected that, owing to the Arctic amplification, boreal wildfires would become more frequent and severe in the coming decades. Although provoking concern, the spatiotemporal changes in boreal wildfires remain unclear, and there are substantial inconsistencies among previous findings. In this study, we performed a comprehensive analysis to determine the spatiotemporal changes in wildfires over Northern Eurasia (NEA) from 2003 to 2020 using a reconstructed Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) active fire product. We found that wildfires in NEA exhibited contrasting changes in different latitudinal zones, land cover types, and seasons from 2003 to 2020. Cropland wildfires, mainly distributed at low latitudes (50–60°N), considerably decreased by 81% during the study period. Whereas forest wildfires ignited at high latitudes (north of 60°N) have nearly tripled (increasing at rate of 11~13% per year) during the past two decades. The southwestern and northeastern NEA regions exhibited contrasting patterns of wildfire changes. The active fire counts in the southwestern NEA decreased by 90% at a rate of 0.29(±0.12) × 105 per year, with cropland fires contributing to ~66% of the decrease. However, the fire counts in the northeastern NEA increased by 292% at a rate of 0.23(±0.12) × 105 per year, with boreal forests contributing to ~97% of the increase. It is worth noting that the contrasting changes in wildfires during the past two decades have led to significant structural alternation in the NEA wildfire composition. Forest fires, contributing over 60% of the total fire counts in NEA nowadays, have become the predominant component of the NEA wildfires. The contrasting changes in NEA wildfires imply that more forest fires may emerge in far northern regions of the North Hemisphere as the Arctic becomes progressively warmer in the coming decades. As wildfires continue to increase, more gases and aerosols would be released to ... |
format |
Text |
author |
Jiaxin Tian Xiaoning Chen Yunfeng Cao Feng Chen |
author_facet |
Jiaxin Tian Xiaoning Chen Yunfeng Cao Feng Chen |
author_sort |
Jiaxin Tian |
title |
Satellite Observational Evidence of Contrasting Changes in Northern Eurasian Wildfires from 2003 to 2020 |
title_short |
Satellite Observational Evidence of Contrasting Changes in Northern Eurasian Wildfires from 2003 to 2020 |
title_full |
Satellite Observational Evidence of Contrasting Changes in Northern Eurasian Wildfires from 2003 to 2020 |
title_fullStr |
Satellite Observational Evidence of Contrasting Changes in Northern Eurasian Wildfires from 2003 to 2020 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Satellite Observational Evidence of Contrasting Changes in Northern Eurasian Wildfires from 2003 to 2020 |
title_sort |
satellite observational evidence of contrasting changes in northern eurasian wildfires from 2003 to 2020 |
publisher |
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14174180 |
op_coverage |
agris |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Remote Sensing; Volume 14; Issue 17; Pages: 4180 |
op_relation |
https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs14174180 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14174180 |
container_title |
Remote Sensing |
container_volume |
14 |
container_issue |
17 |
container_start_page |
4180 |
_version_ |
1774714643473760256 |