Assessing the potential of the differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) for estimating burn severity in eastern Canadian boreal forests

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Boucher ◽  
André Beaudoin ◽  
Christian Hébert ◽  
Luc Guindon ◽  
Éric Bauce
Keyword(s):  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Black Spruce ◽  
Additive Model ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Burn Severity ◽  
Eastern Canada ◽  
Generalised Additive Model ◽  
Boreal Region ◽  
Differenced Normalized Burn Ratio ◽  
Normalized Burn Ratio

There is considerable variation in the degree of burn severity in boreal fires. One approach that has been used to capture this variation from field and remote sensing perspectives for western Canadian boreal forests is the Composite Burn Index (CBI) and differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR). Of interest was how well these methods may perform for fires in eastern Canada. This study investigated the CBI-dNBR relationship for selected fires in the eastern boreal forests of Canada, with a view towards contributing to the generalisation of a Canada-wide model. Results for the sampled region showed no difference in the CBI-dNBR relationship between black spruce- and jack pine-dominated stands, whereas this relationship was best described by a Generalised Additive Model (GAM). The dNBR-derived maps would also be useful in support of research and post-fire management in burns outside the studied territory and time frame covered by the existing burn severity mapping system already used in this region. The Saturated growth model proposed for the western boreal region also performed well for our eastern boreal region, thus further supporting the development of a national model.

Evaluating the ability of the differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) to predict ecologically significant burn severity in Alaskan boreal forests

2008 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen A. Murphy ◽  
Joel H. Reynolds ◽  
John M. Koltun
Keyword(s):  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Burn Severity ◽  
Fire Season ◽  
Vegetation Composition ◽  
Management Objectives ◽  
Differenced Normalized Burn Ratio ◽  
Normalized Burn Ratio ◽  
Processing Errors ◽  
The Relationship

During the 2004 fire season ~6.6 million acres (~2.7 million ha) burned across Alaska. Nearly 2 million of these were on National Wildlife Refuge System lands inaccessible from the state’s limited road system. Many fires burned through September, driven by unusually warm and dry temperatures throughout the summer. Using several fires from this season, we assessed the national burn severity methodology’s performance on refuge lands. Six fires, spanning 814 489 acres (329 613 ha), were sampled on five boreal forest refuges. In total, 347 sites were sampled for vegetation composition and ground-based burn severity estimates following the national protocols. The relationship between the differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) and composite burn index (CBI) was unexpectedly weak (R2adjusted, 0.11–0.64). The weak relationship was not a result of data or image processing errors, nor of any biotic or abiotic confounding variable. The inconsistent results, and dNBR’s limited ability to discern the ecologically significant differences within moderate and high severity burn sites, indicate that the current methodology does not satisfy key Alaskan boreal forest management objectives.

A flexible approach for predicting and mapping postfire wood borer attacks in black spruce and jack pine forests using the differenced normalized burn ratio (dNBR)

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (9) ◽  
pp. 880-889 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Boucher ◽  
Christian Hébert ◽  
Eric Bauce
Keyword(s):  
Pinus Banksiana ◽  
Black Spruce ◽  
Jack Pine ◽  
Continuous Variable ◽  
Burn Severity ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Salvage Logging ◽  
Differenced Normalized Burn Ratio ◽  
Normalized Burn Ratio ◽  
Wood Borer

Postfire salvage logging is used to reduce economic losses; however, burned trees are rapidly colonized by wood-boring insects, which reduce the merchantable value of the wood. This study aims to predict wood borer (Monochamus Megerle in Dejean, 1821) attacks after wildfire as a function of rapidly available variables such as tree basal area, stem diameter, and burn severity using the differenced normalized burn ratio (dNBR). In 2011, we sampled 60 black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb.) or jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.) plots in five burns from 2010 in the Haute-Mauricie region of Quebec, Canada. A 50 cm bole section was debarked on seven trees in each plot to estimate wood borer attack density. Wood borer attacks were more abundant in black spruce than in jack pine. As a continuous variable, dNBR unveiled a quadratic effect of burn severity on attack density in black spruce, which was higher at moderate burn severity. In jack pine, the highest levels of attack density were found at high burn severity. Models produced in this article will help forest managers to better prioritize areas for salvage logging and thus reduce economic losses due to wood borer activity.

Fire and burn severity assessment: Calibration of Relative Differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (RdNBR) with field data

2019 ◽  
Vol 235 ◽  
pp. 342-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrián Cardil ◽  
Blas Mola-Yudego ◽  
Ángela Blázquez-Casado ◽  
José Ramón González-Olabarria
Keyword(s):  
Field Data ◽  
Burn Severity ◽  
Severity Assessment ◽  
Differenced Normalized Burn Ratio ◽  
Normalized Burn Ratio

scholarly journals Quantificação da Severidade das Queimadas e da Perda de Sequestro Florestal de Carbono em Unidades de Conservação do Distrito Federal (Measurement of Severity of Fires and Loss of Carbon Forest sink in the Conservation Units at Distrito Federal)

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 250
Author(s):  
Débora Teobaldo ◽  
Gustavo Macedo de Mello Baptista
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Sink ◽  
Severity Index ◽  
Burn Severity ◽  
Conservation Units ◽  
Differenced Normalized Burn Ratio ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Distrito Federal ◽  
Para Determinar ◽  
Normalized Burn Ratio ◽  
The Relationship

O objetivo desse trabalho foi avaliar o grau de severidade das queimadas e da perda do sequestro de carbono nas principais Unidades de Conservação do Distrito Federal nos anos de 2010 e 2011. Para determinar o grau de severidade utilizou-se índices espectrais antes e depois da queimada, como o índice de queimada por razão normalizada (NBR) e o índice relativo diferenciado de queimada por razão normalizada (RdNBR). O sequestro de carbono perdido pela queimada foi comparado antes, depois da queimada e na rebrota pelo índice espectral CO2flux. A relação entre a severidade e o sequestro de carbono também foi determinada por meio das imagens de pré-fogo, pós-fogo e da rebrota e a comparação temporal do CO2flux. As regressões obtidas para o ano de 2010 foram bastante de acordo com o esperado, com baixa relação antes da queimada, alta após, e menor na rebrota. Já para 2011, como ocorreram queimadas ao longo de todo o período, não foi possível verificar relações favoráveis.    A B S T R A C T The aim of this study was to assess the burn severity and carbon sink in the Conservation Units at Distrito Federal in the 2010 and 2011. For the burn severity index was used to quantify biomass before and after burning, such as a Normalized Burn Ratio - NBR and relative differenced Normalized Burn Ratio - RdNBR indices. Carbon sink lost by the burning was compared before and after fire by regrowth CO2flux spectral index. The relationship between the burn severity and carbon sink were also made by means the pre, post-fire and regrowth images, and temporal comparison of CO2flux. The regressions obtained for the 2010 were largely in agreement with expectations, with a low pre-fire, after high and low in regrowth. Already in 2011, as fires occurred throughout the period, it was not possible to verify favorable relationships. Keywords: Biomass, burn severity, RdNBR, carbon sink, CO2flux.  

scholarly journals LANDSAT-BASED DETECTION AND SEVERITY ANALYSIS OF BURNED SUGARCANE PLOTS IN TARLAC, PHILIPPINES USING DIFFERENCED NORMALIZED BURN RATIO (dNBR)

2016 ◽  
Vol XLII-4/W1 ◽  
pp. 173-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. B. Baloloy ◽  
A. C. Blanco ◽  
B. S. Gana ◽  
R. C. Sta. Ana ◽  
L. C. Olalia
Keyword(s):  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Burn Severity ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Landsat 8 ◽  
Potential Yield ◽  
Differenced Normalized Burn Ratio ◽  
Normalized Burn Ratio

The Philippines has a booming sugarcane industry contributing about PHP 70 billion annually to the local economy through raw sugar, molasses and bioethanol production (SRA, 2012). Sugarcane planters adapt different farm practices in cultivating sugarcane, one of which is cane burning to eliminate unwanted plant material and facilitate easier harvest. Information on burned sugarcane extent is significant in yield estimation models to calculate total sugar lost during harvest. Pre-harvest burning can lessen sucrose by 2.7% - 5% of the potential yield (Gomez, et al 2006; Hiranyavasit, 2016). This study employs a method for detecting burn sugarcane area and determining burn severity through Differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) using Landsat 8 Images acquired during the late milling season in Tarlac, Philippines. Total burned area was computed per burn severity based on pre-fire and post-fire images. Results show that 75.38% of the total sugarcane fields in Tarlac were burned with post-fire regrowth; 16.61% were recently burned; and only 8.01% were unburned. The monthly dNBR for February to March generated the largest area with low severity burn (1,436 ha) and high severity burn (31.14 ha) due to pre-harvest burning. Post-fire regrowth is highest in April to May when previously burned areas were already replanted with sugarcane. The maximum dNBR of the entire late milling season (February to May) recorded larger extent of areas with high and low post-fire regrowth compared to areas with low, moderate and high burn severity. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was used to analyse vegetation dynamics between the burn severity classes. Significant positive correlation, rho = 0.99, was observed between dNBR and dNDVI at 5% level (p = 0.004). An accuracy of 89.03% was calculated for the Landsat-derived NBR validated using actual mill data for crop year 2015-2016.

1984–2010 trends in fire burn severity and area for the conterminous US

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua J. Picotte ◽  
Birgit Peterson ◽  
Gretchen Meier ◽  
Stephen M. Howard
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Vegetation Classification ◽  
Cumulative Distribution ◽  
Burn Severity ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Detectable Change ◽  
Historical Trends ◽  
Differenced Normalized Burn Ratio ◽  
Normalized Burn Ratio ◽  
In Fire

Burn severity products created by the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) project were used to analyse historical trends in burn severity. Using a severity metric calculated by modelling the cumulative distribution of differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) and Relativized dNBR (RdNBR) data, we examined burn area and burn severity of 4893 historical fires (1984–2010) distributed across the conterminous US (CONUS) and mapped by MTBS. Yearly mean burn severity values (weighted by area), maximum burn severity metric values, mean area of burn, maximum burn area and total burn area were evaluated within 27 US National Vegetation Classification macrogroups. Time series assessments of burned area and severity were performed using Mann–Kendall tests. Burned area and severity varied by vegetation classification, but most vegetation groups showed no detectable change during the 1984–2010 period. Of the 27 analysed vegetation groups, trend analysis revealed burned area increased in eight, and burn severity has increased in seven. This study suggests that burned area and severity, as measured by the severity metric based on dNBR or RdNBR, have not changed substantially for most vegetation groups evaluated within CONUS.

Moving towards carbon neutrality: CO2 exchange of a black spruce forest ecosystem during the first 10 years of recovery after harvest

2012 ◽  
Vol 42 (11) ◽  
pp. 1908-1918 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carole Coursolle ◽  
Marc-André Giasson ◽  
Hank A. Margolis ◽  
Pierre Y. Bernier
Keyword(s):  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Black Spruce ◽  
Ecosystem Respiration ◽  
Co2 Exchange ◽  
Relative Role ◽  
Ecosystem Productivity ◽  
Eastern Canada ◽  
Post Harvest ◽  
C Dynamics ◽  
Rate Of Increase

Disturbances control the landscape-level C dynamics of boreal forests, but post-disturbance C dynamics are usually poorly quantified. In the current study, we use 10 years of CO2 flux measurements at a boreal black spruce ( Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P.) cutover in eastern Canada to estimate time to C neutrality, quantify the relative role of respiration versus photosynthesis during recovery, and determine the agreement between cumulated CO2 fluxes and plot-level changes in C content. The site was a net source of 139 g C·m–2·year–1 2 years post-harvest, dropped further to a source of 173 g C·m–2·year–1 4 years post-harvest, following a scarification treatment, and was nearly C neutral 10 years post-harvest. Gross ecosystem productivity (GEP) increased by 50 g C·m–2·year–1 post-scarification, while ecosystem respiration (ER) increased by only 23 g C·m–2·year–1. The resulting net rate of increase of 27 g C·m–2·year–1 in net ecosystem productivity was driven by changes in increasing leaf area. In fact, vegetation regrowth had a much greater impact on annual fluxes than did interannual variability in climate. Biometric-based measurements of total C losses after harvest were in relatively good agreement with eddy-covariance-based estimates 8 years after the harvest.

scholarly journals Evaluating the Differenced Normalized Burn Ratio for Assessing Fire Severity Using Sentinel-2 Imagery in Northeast Siberian Larch Forests

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 2311
Author(s):  
Clement J. F. Delcourt ◽  
Alisha Combee ◽  
Brian Izbicki ◽  
Michelle C. Mack ◽  
Trofim Maximov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Siberian Larch ◽  
Fire Scars ◽  
Differenced Normalized Burn Ratio ◽  
Larch Forests ◽  
Normalized Burn Ratio ◽  
Burn Depth ◽  
Field Plots ◽  
Sentinel 2

Fire severity is a key fire regime characteristic with high ecological and carbon cycle relevance. Prior studies on boreal forest fires primarily focused on mapping severity in North American boreal forests. However, the dominant tree species and their impacts on fire regimes are different between North American and Siberian boreal forests. Here, we used Sentinel-2 satellite imagery to test the potential for using the most common spectral index for assessing fire severity, the differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR), over two fire scars and 37 field plots in Northeast Siberian larch-dominated (Larix cajanderi) forests. These field plots were sampled into two different forest types: (1) dense young stands and (2) open mature stands. For this evaluation, the dNBR was compared to field measurements of the Geometrically structured Composite Burn Index (GeoCBI) and burn depth. We found a linear relationship between dNBR and GeoCBI using data from all forest types (R2 = 0.42, p < 0.001). The dNBR performed better to predict GeoCBI in open mature larch plots (R2 = 0.56, p < 0.001). The GeoCBI provides a holistic field assessment of fire severity yet is dominated by the effect of fire on vegetation. No significant relationships were found between GeoCBI components (overall and substrate stratum) and burn depth within our fires (p > 0.05 in all cases). However, the dNBR showed some potential as a predictor for burn depth, especially in the dense larch forests (R2 = 0.63, p < 0.001). In line with previous studies in boreal North America, the dNBR correlated reasonably well with field data of aboveground fire severity and showed some skills as a predictor of burn depth. More research is needed to refine spaceborne fire severity assessments in the larch forests of Northeast Siberia, including assessments of additional fire scars and integration of dNBR with other geospatial proxies of fire severity.

scholarly journals Complete Chloroplast Genome Sequence of a Black Spruce (Picea mariana) from Eastern Canada

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (39) ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodora Lo ◽  
Lauren Coombe ◽  
Diana Lin ◽  
René L. Warren ◽  
Heather Kirk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Chloroplast Genome ◽  
Genome Sequence ◽  
Picea Mariana ◽  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Genetic Basis ◽  
Black Spruce ◽  
Eastern Canada ◽  
Complete Chloroplast Genome ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Chloroplast Genome Sequence

ABSTRACT Here, we present the chloroplast genome sequence of black spruce (Picea mariana), a conifer widely distributed throughout North American boreal forests. This complete and annotated chloroplast sequence is 123,961 bp long and will contribute to future studies on the genetic basis of evolutionary change in spruce and adaptation in conifers.

Comparison of burn severity assessments using Differenced Normalized Burn Ratio and ground data

2005 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison E. Cocke ◽  
Peter Z. Fulé ◽  
Joseph E. Crouse
Keyword(s):  
Pinus Ponderosa ◽  
Forest Structure ◽  
Tree Mortality ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Basal Area ◽  
Burn Severity ◽  
Burned Areas ◽  
Differenced Normalized Burn Ratio ◽  
Severity Levels ◽  
Normalized Burn Ratio

Burn severity can be mapped using satellite data to detect changes in forest structure and moisture content caused by fires. The 2001 Leroux fire on the Coconino National Forest, Arizona, burned over 18 pre-existing permanent 0.1 ha plots. Plots were re-measured following the fire. Landsat 7 ETM+ imagery and the Differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (ΔNBR) were used to map the fire into four severity levels immediately following the fire (July 2001) and 1 year after the fire (June 2002). Ninety-two Composite Burn Index (CBI) plots were compared to the fire severity maps. Pre- and post-fire plot measurements were also analysed according to their imagery classification. Ground measurements demonstrated differences in forest structure. Areas that were classified as severely burned on the imagery were predominantly Pinus ponderosa stands. Tree density and basal area, snag density and fine fuel accumulation were associated with severity levels. Tree mortality was not greatest in severely burned areas, indicating that the ΔNBR is comprehensive in rating burn severity by incorporating multiple forest strata. While the ΔNBR was less accurate at mapping perimeters, the method was reliable for mapping severely burned areas that may need immediate or long-term post-fire recovery.

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