Effects of biotic feedback and harvest management on boreal forest fire activity under climate change

2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 122-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meg A. Krawchuk ◽  
Steve G. Cumming
2010 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 253 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. M. Wotton ◽  
C. A. Nock ◽  
M. D. Flannigan

The structure and function of the boreal forest are significantly influenced by forest fires. The ignition and growth of fires depend quite strongly on weather; thus, climate change can be expected to have a considerable impact on forest fire activity and hence the structure of the boreal forest. Forest fire occurrence is an extremely important element of fire activity as it defines the load on suppression resources a fire management agency will face. We used two general circulation models (GCMs) to develop projections of future fire occurrence across Canada. While fire numbers are projected to increase across all forested regions studied, the relative increase in number of fires varies regionally. Overall across Canada, our results from the Canadian Climate Centre GCM scenarios suggest an increase in fire occurrence of 25% by 2030 and 75% by the end of the 21st century. Results projected from fire climate scenarios derived from the Hadley Centre GCM suggest fire occurrence will increase by 140% by the end of this century. These general increases in fire occurrence across Canada agree with other regional and national studies of the impacts of climate change on fire activity. Thus, in the absence of large changes to current climatic trends, significant fire regime induced changes in the boreal forest ecosystem are likely.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larisa Sogacheva ◽  
Anu-Maija Sundström ◽  
Timo H. Virtanen ◽  
Antti Arola ◽  
Tuukka Petäjä ◽  
...  

<p>The Pan-Eurasian Experiment Program (PEEX) is an interdisciplinary scientific program bringing together ground-based in situ and remote sensing observations, satellite measurements and modeling tools aiming to improve the understanding of land-water-atmosphere interactions, feedback mechanisms and their effects on the ecosystem, climate and society in northern Eurasia, Russia and China. In a view of the large area covering thousands of kilometres, large gaps will remain where no or little ground-based observational information will be available. The gap can partly be filled by satellite remote sensing of relevant parameters as regards atmospheric composition.</p><p>Biomass burning is a violent source of atmospheric pollutants. Fires and corresponding emissions to the atmosphere dramatically change the atmospheric composition in case of long-lasting fire events, which might cover extended areas. In the burned areas, CO2 exchange, as well as emissions of different compounds are getting to higher levels, which might contribute to climate change by changing the radiative budget through the aerosol-cloud interaction and cloud formation. In the boreal forest, after CO2, CO and CH4, the largest emission factors for individual species were formaldehyde, followed by methanol and NO2 (Simpson et al., ACP, 2011). The emitted long-life components, e.g., black carbon, might further be transported to the distant areas and measured at the surface far from the burned areas.</p><p>In the boreal forest region, fires are very common, very large and produce a lot of smoke. Boreal areas  have been burning regularly for thousands of years and is adapted to fires, which happen most often between May and October. In boreal ecosystems, future increases in air temperature may lengthen the fire season and increase the probability of fires, leading some to hypothesize a positive feedback between warming, fire activity, carbon loss, and future climate change (Kasischke et al., 2000). </p><p> During the last few decades, several burning episodes have been observed over PEEX area by satellites (as fire counts), specifically over Siberia and central Russia. The following information available from satellites will be utilized to reveal a connection between Fire activity and atmospheric composition <span>for the period 2002-2020 over the PEEX area:</span></p><ul><li>- Fire count, FRP and burned areas from MODIS</li> <li>- Absorbing Aerosol Index (AAI), multi-instrument (GOME-2, OMI, TOMS) product</li> <li>- CO from MOPPIT</li> <li>- HCHO and NO2 from OMI</li> </ul><p>Monthly temperature and humidity fields from ERA5 re-analysis will be also utilized to reveal if a connection exist between climate variables and occurrence and intensity of the forest fires.</p><p>Kasischke, B. J. Stocks: Fire, Climate Change, and Carbon Cycling in the Boreal Forest. M. M. Cadwellet al.,Eds., Ecological Studies (Springer, New York, 2000)</p><p>Simpson, I. J., Akagi, S. K., Barletta, B., Blake, N. J., Choi, Y., Diskin, G. S., Fried, A., Fuelberg, H. E., Meinardi, S., Rowland, F. S., Vay, S. A., Weinheimer, A. J., Wennberg, P. O., Wiebring, P., Wisthaler, A., Yang, M., Yokelson, R. J., and Blake, D. R.: Boreal forest fire emissions in fresh Canadian smoke plumes: C<sub>1</sub>-C<sub>10</sub> volatile organic compounds (VOCs), CO<sub>2</sub>, CO, NO<sub>2</sub>, NO, HCN and CH<sub>3</sub>CN, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 6445–6463, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-6445-2011, 2011.</p><p> </p>


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 239-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Lehtonen ◽  
A. Venäläinen ◽  
M. Kämäräinen ◽  
H. Peltola ◽  
H. Gregow

Abstract. The target of this work was to assess the impact of projected climate change on forest-fire activity in Finland with special emphasis on large-scale fires. In addition, we were particularly interested to examine the inter-model variability of the projected change of fire danger. For this purpose, we utilized fire statistics covering the period 1996–2014 and consisting of almost 20 000 forest fires, as well as daily meteorological data from five global climate models under representative concentration pathway RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios. The model data were statistically downscaled onto a high-resolution grid using the quantile-mapping method before performing the analysis. In examining the relationship between weather and fire danger, we applied the Canadian fire weather index (FWI) system. Our results suggest that the number of large forest fires may double or even triple during the present century. This would increase the risk that some of the fires could develop into real conflagrations which have become almost extinct in Finland due to active and efficient fire suppression. However, the results reveal substantial inter-model variability in the rate of the projected increase of forest-fire danger, emphasizing the large uncertainty related to the climate change signal in fire activity. We moreover showed that the majority of large fires in Finland occur within a relatively short period in May and June due to human activities and that FWI correlates poorer with the fire activity during this time of year than later in summer when lightning is a more important cause of fires.


Author(s):  
Brian J. Stocks ◽  
Michael A. Fosberg ◽  
Michael B. Wotton ◽  
Timothy J. Lynham ◽  
Kevin C. Ryan

Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 981
Author(s):  
Hadi Heidari ◽  
Mazdak Arabi ◽  
Travis Warziniack

Climate change, with warming temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns, may increase natural-caused forest fire activity. Increasing natural-caused fires throughout western United States national forests could place people, property, and infrastructure at risk in the future. We used the fine K nearest neighbor (KNN) method coupled with the downscaled Multivariate Adaptive Constructed Analogs (MACA) climate dataset to estimate changes in the rate of natural-caused fires in western United States national forests. We projected changes in the rate of minor and major forest fires from historical (1986–2015) to future (2070–2099) conditions to characterize fire-prone national forests under a range of climate change scenarios. The results indicate that climate change can add to the occurrence of forest fires in western United States national forests, particularly in Rocky Mountain, Pacific Southwest, and Southwestern United States Forest Service regions. Although summer months are projected to have the highest rate of natural-caused forest fire activity in the future, the rate of natural-caused forest fires is likely to increase from August to December in the future compared to the historical conditions. Improved understanding of altered forest fire regimes can help forest managers to better understand the potential effects of climate change on future fire activity and implement actions to attenuate possible negative consequences.


Author(s):  
B. J. Stocks ◽  
B. M. Wotton ◽  
M. D. Flannigan ◽  
M. A. Fosberg ◽  
D. R. Cahoon ◽  
...  

2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guang Yang ◽  
Xue-ying Di ◽  
Qing-xi Guo ◽  
Zhan Shu ◽  
Tao Zeng ◽  
...  

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document