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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Published in:Fire
Main Authors: Elena A. Kukavskaya, Evgeny G. Shvetsov, Ludmila V. Buryak, Pavel D. Tretyakov, Pavel Ya. Groisman
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3390/fire6020063
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spelling ftmdpi:oai:mdpi.com:/2571-6255/6/2/63/ 2023-08-20T04:10:07+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 agris 2023-02-09 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/fire6020063 EN eng Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/fire6020063 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Fire; Volume 6; Issue 2; Pages: 63 boreal forests Angara region fires clearcuts surface and ground fuels fuel-load maps Text 2023 ftmdpi https://doi.org/10.3390/fire6020063 2023-08-01T08:43:37Z 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. Text taiga Siberia MDPI Open Access Publishing Fire 6 2 63
institution Open Polar
collection MDPI Open Access Publishing
op_collection_id ftmdpi
language English
topic boreal forests
Angara region
fires
clearcuts
surface and ground fuels
fuel-load maps
spellingShingle boreal forests
Angara region
fires
clearcuts
surface and ground fuels
fuel-load maps
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
topic_facet boreal forests
Angara region
fires
clearcuts
surface and ground fuels
fuel-load maps
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 Text
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 Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
publishDate 2023
url https://doi.org/10.3390/fire6020063
op_coverage agris
genre taiga
Siberia
genre_facet taiga
Siberia
op_source Fire; Volume 6; Issue 2; Pages: 63
op_relation https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/fire6020063
op_rights https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
op_doi https://doi.org/10.3390/fire6020063
container_title Fire
container_volume 6
container_issue 2
container_start_page 63
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