Article
Environmental Sciences
D. C. S. Vieira, P. Borrelli, D. Jahanianfard, A. Benali, S. Scarpa, P. Panagos
Summary: Millions of hectares of land are affected by wildfires annually, leading to disruptions in ecosystem functioning and off-site impacts such as water contamination. This study assesses the soil erosion caused by the 2017 wildfires in Europe and explores the potential for vegetation recovery and erosion mitigation. The findings reveal a significant increase in soil losses in the first year post-fire, with an estimated 44 million Mg of additional soil losses over five years and partial recovery in 46% of the burned area. Post-fire mitigation measures can reduce soil erosion to background levels by the fourth year. The insights from this study can inform policies aimed at reducing land degradation, aligning with existing strategies in the European Union.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Viacheslav I. Kharuk, Maria L. Dvinskaya, Sergei T. Im, Alexei S. Golyukov, Kevin T. Smith
Summary: Wildfires are increasingly recognized as an ecological driver in the Arctic biome. In the Siberian Arctic, the frequency and extent of wildfires have tripled over the past decade, particularly in western Siberia. These changes are accompanied by the northward migration of wildfires and an increase in the duration of the fire season. However, vegetation productivity quickly recovers after fires, and the northward movement of boreal forest tree species may help offset the release of carbon from peat. Nevertheless, the increased wildfire activity and loss of permafrost pose threats to settlements and industrialization, especially in western Siberia.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Xin Huang, Ke Ding, Jingyi Liu, Zilin Wang, Rong Tang, Lian Xue, Haikun Wang, Qiang Zhang, Zhe-Min Tan, Congbin Fu, Steven J. Davis, Meinrat O. Andreae, Aijun Ding
Summary: Extreme wildfires pose threats to human lives, air quality, and ecosystems. The impact of meteorology on wildfire behaviors and the correlation between wildfires and climate are well-studied. However, the influence of fire-weather feedback on short-term wildfire variability remains unclear, hindering fire disaster mitigation. In this study, we demonstrate the dominant role of synoptic-scale feedback in driving extreme fires in Mediterranean and monsoon climate regions. We observed that the radiative effects of smoke aerosols can modify near-surface wind, air dryness, and rainfall, thereby exacerbating air pollution by enhancing fire emissions and weakening dispersion. The complex interactions among wildfires, smoke, and weather create a positive feedback loop that significantly increases air pollution exposure.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Binod Pokharel, Shankar Sharma, Jacob Stuivenvolt-Allen, Shih-Yu Simon Wang, Matthew LaPlante, Robert R. Gillies, Sujan Khanal, Michael Wehner, Alan Rhoades, Kalpana Hamal, Benjamin Hatchett, Wan-Yu Liu, Sarbajit Mukherjee, Deepak Aryal
Summary: In spring 2021, Nepal experienced an unprecedented wildfire season, with the number of active fires being 10 times higher than the average from 2002 to 2020. This was preceded by a prolonged period of drought caused by a lack of precipitation and climate variability, indicating the influence of both natural climate patterns and climate change. Climate models suggest that drought conditions are likely to reoccur, leading to more active wildfire seasons throughout the twenty-first century. Although there is uncertainty among models and direct modeling of wildfire spread and suppression is incomplete, the relationship between a drought index and fire activity can provide forest managers with valuable information for managing Nepal's wildlands by monitoring and projecting climate anomalies.
Article
Forestry
Fengjun Zhao, Yongqiang Liu
Summary: This study aims to improve the prediction skills of long-range wildfires in China by identifying important meteorological predictors. Results show that factors like VDP, KBDI, PDSI, and SPI have significant correlations with fires, which will enhance the accuracy of fire predictions in many provinces of China.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Anna C. Talucci, Michael M. Loranty, Heather D. Alexander
Summary: This study investigates the distribution of fire refugia and its topographic drivers in the Cajander larch forests of northeastern Siberia. The results show that the unprecedented wildfires in 2020 did not impact the formation of fire refugia. Topographic position and terrain steepness were found to be important predictors of fire refugia.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2022)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
David L. A. Gaveau, Adria Descals, Mohammad A. Salim, Douglas Sheil, Sean Sloan
Summary: A new method for estimating burned areas in Indonesia in 2019 is proposed, showing higher reliability and accuracy compared to previous methods, with important implications for monitoring and reducing carbon emissions from forest and peatland fires.
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE DATA
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Jon E. Keeley, Alexandra D. Syphard
Summary: By analyzing records of large fire events in California since 1860, this study places the large fires in 2020 and recent years in a historical context. The results show that extreme fire events like those in 2020 have occurred historically, but the increase in large fires in recent years is new. The study concludes that there have been several years with exceptionally large fires in the last decade, and lengthy droughts are associated with peaks in large fires in both the 1920s and the early twenty-first century.
Article
Forestry
Oxana V. Masyagina, Svetlana Y. Evgrafova, Oleg V. Menyailo, Shigeta Mori, Takayoshi Koike, Stanislav G. Prokushkin
Summary: The study revealed significant spatial variation in soil respiration at high latitudes, which is primarily regulated by biological and environmental factors. Soil respiration rates vary significantly among different age groups, with a notable increase observed in groups with reduced soil water content due to precipitation shortages during the growing season.
Article
Forestry
Thomas A. Fairman, Craig R. Nitschke, Lauren T. Bennett
Summary: The study found that both single and short-interval wildfires can significantly reduce the amount of carbon stored in fire-tolerant eucalypt forests, particularly affecting aboveground carbon stocks, while the reduction in soil carbon stocks could also delay post-fire productivity recovery.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2022)
Article
Forestry
L. Mike Conner, Angela Holland, Gail Morris
Summary: Longleaf pine forests, as one of the most fire-dependent forest types, have received conservation and restoration emphasis due to the loss and fragmentation. Prescribed fires are important for maintaining habitat for small mammals, but the return intervals of fires have species-specific effects on small mammal abundances. Manipulating fire return intervals can be a promising tool for managing the relative abundance of small mammals and other wildlife.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2022)
Article
Agronomy
Igor Drobyshev, Nina Ryzhkova, Jonathan Eden, Mara Kitenberga, Guilherme Pinto, Henrik Lindberg, Folmer Krikken, Maxim Yermokhin, Yves Bergeron, Alexander Kryshen
Summary: The forest fire activity in the European boreal zone is strongly influenced by climate variability, with no long-term trend observed in the synchrony of large fire years across administrative units. Significant correlations were found between large fire years and the development of high pressure systems in July, indicating climatic forcing on forest fires.
AGRICULTURAL AND FOREST METEOROLOGY
(2021)
Article
Forestry
Lena Vila-Vilardell, Miquel De Caceres, Miriam Pique, Pere Casals
Summary: Vegetation structure affects the vulnerability of a forest to drought events and wildfires. Management decisions, such as thinning intensity and type of understory treatment, influence competition for water resources and amount of fuel available. Our study highlights the importance of managing the understory to further increase forest resistance to both disturbances.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2023)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Fa Li, Qing Zhu, William J. Riley, Lei Zhao, Li Xu, Kunxiaojia Yuan, Min Chen, Huayi Wu, Zhipeng Gui, Jianya Gong, James T. Randerson
Summary: African and South American wildfires play a significant role in global burned areas and are closely connected to local climate. However, representing the relationship between wildfires and climate remains challenging due to their heterogeneous responses. In this study, an interpretable machine learning fire model (AttentionFire_v1.0) was developed to improve the predictability of burned areas in these regions. The model revealed a strong time-lagged control from climate wetness on burned areas and predicted a reversal in burned area trends in South America under a high-emission future climate scenario. This research provides a reliable and interpretable fire model and emphasizes the importance of lagged wildfire-climate relationships in historical and future predictions.
GEOSCIENTIFIC MODEL DEVELOPMENT
(2023)
Article
Forestry
Philipp Kaiser, Henning Buddenbaum, Sascha Nink, Joachim Hill
Summary: This paper presents the use of multitemporal Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data to detect drought-affected and fire-endangered forest stands with high spatial and temporal resolution. The authors developed a novel Sentinel-1 Radar Drought Index (RDI) to reduce speckle noise and created a spatially explicit detection map of drought-affected forest stands in the Donnersberg study area in Germany. The results showed a significant correlation between RDI values and monthly mean temperatures, indicating the potential of Sentinel-1 data for timely detection of drought-affected and fire-prone forest areas.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Viacheslav I. Kharuk, Kenneth J. Ranson, Il'ya A. Petrov, Maria L. Dvinskaya, Sergei T. Im, Alexei S. Golyukov
REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE
(2019)
Article
Ecology
Adrianna C. Foster, Amanda H. Armstrong, Jacquelyn K. Shuman, Herman H. Shugart, Brendan M. Rogers, Michelle C. Mack, Scott J. Goetz, K. Jon Ranson
ECOLOGICAL MODELLING
(2019)
Article
Forestry
Evgenii Ponomarev, Oxana Masyagina, Kirill Litvintsev, Tatiana Ponomareva, Evgeny Shvetsov, Konstantin Finnikov
Article
Ecology
A. H. Armstrong, A. Huth, B. Osmanoglu, G. Sun, K. J. Ranson, R. Fischer
ECOLOGICAL MODELLING
(2020)
Article
Ecology
D. Nazimova, E. Ponomarev, M. E. Konovalova
CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS OF ECOLOGY
(2020)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Viacheslav I. Kharuk, Evgenii I. Ponomarev, Galina A. Ivanova, Maria L. Dvinskaya, Sean C. P. Coogan, Mike D. Flannigan
Summary: Most wildfires in Siberia occur in larch forests, with warming leading to an increase in their frequency and area. Larch and Scots pine have adapted to periodic forest fires, contributing to their competitive advantage in the taiga.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Evgenii Ponomarev, Nikita Yakimov, Tatiana Ponomareva, Oleg Yakubailik, Susan G. Conard
Summary: Analysis shows that the annual average of direct carbon emissions from wildfires in Siberia has been 80 +/- 20 Tg C/year since 2002, but the emissions in 2020 were exceptionally high at 350 Tg C/year. Over the next decade, fire emissions may increase to 250 +/- 30 Tg C/year.
Article
Forestry
Tatiana Ponomareva, Kirill Yu Litvintsev, Konstantin A. Finnikov, Nikita D. Yakimov, Andrey Sentyabov, Evgenii Ponomarev
Summary: The study found that the thermal insulation properties of vegetation cover in post-fire areas are restored within 20 years, reaching background values, while in post-technogenic areas, the recovery of the thermal regime takes longer (>60 years) and the new industrial ecosystems exhibit unique thermal soil environments.
Article
Forestry
Evgenii I. Ponomarev, Evgeny G. Shvetsov, Nikita D. Yakimov, Pavel D. Tretyakov, Andrey A. Goroshko, Svetlana M. Sultson, Pavel V. Mikhaylov
Summary: In this study, the disturbance of tree stands by the Siberian Silk Moth in Central Siberia from 2015 to 2020 was analyzed. Satellite data, field forest inventory data, meteorological data, and vegetation cover vector layer were used. Silk moth-disturbed areas were classified using NDVI, and the temporal dynamics of the disturbed area were described. The degree of disturbance of the forest stand after silk moth impact was classified based on NDVI anomalies. Regression equations were used to predict the degree of impact on the stand during silk moth outbreaks.
Proceedings Paper
Geography, Physical
K. F. Huemmrich, P. E. K. Campbell, D. J. Harding, K. J. Ranson, R. Wynne, V Thomas, E. M. Middleton
Summary: This study successfully developed and tested multiple algorithms using data from the DLR Earth Sensing Imaging Spectrometer (DESIS) to remotely retrieve ecosystem productivity based on spectral reflectance. The algorithms demonstrated good accuracy across different locations, years, and times of observation.
1ST DESIS USER WORKSHOP - IMAGING SPECTROMETER SPACE MISSION, CALIBRATION AND VALIDATION, APPLICATIONS, METHODS
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Evgenii Ponomarev, Andrey Zabrodin, Tatiana Ponomareva
Summary: Wildfires in Siberia have a significant impact on carbon budgets due to post-fire mortality of tree stands. This study analyzed the impact of fire on different vegetation types and dominant tree species in eastern Siberia using remote sensing data. The findings show that the proportion of severe fires varies across different forest types, with a current estimate of stand-replacement fires at 12-33% in 2021. The study also quantified the area of unaffected vegetation in the region, which was around 700 thousand hectares in 2021.
Proceedings Paper
Environmental Sciences
Konstantin Krasnoshchekov, Alexander Dergunov, Evgenii Ponomarev
REGIONAL PROBLEMS OF EARTH REMOTE SENSING (RPERS 2020)
(2020)
Article
Ecology
E. G. Shvetsov, E. I. Ponomarev
CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS OF ECOLOGY
(2020)
Proceedings Paper
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Wenjian Ni, Guoqing Sun, Kenneth Jon Ranson, Paul Montesano, Qinhuo Liu, Zengyuan Li, Vyacheslav I. Kharuk, Zhiyu Zhang
2019 IEEE INTERNATIONAL GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING SYMPOSIUM (IGARSS 2019)
(2019)
Proceedings Paper
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Anatoly Sorokin, Vladimir Podoprigora, Evgenii Ponomarev
REGIONAL PROBLEMS OF EARTH REMOTE SENSING (RPERS 2018)
(2019)
