Fires on Ice: Emerging Permafrost Peatlands Fire Regimes in Russia’s Subarctic Taiga

Abstract

Wildfires in permafrost areas, including smoldering fires (e.g., “zombie fires”), have increasingly become a concern in the Arctic and subarctic. Their detection is difficult and requires ground truthing. Local and Indigenous knowledge are becoming useful sources of information that could guide future research and wildfire management. This paper focuses on permafrost peatland fires in the Siberian subarctic taiga linked to local communities and their infrastructure. It presents the results of field studies in Evenki and old-settler communities of Tokma and Khanda in the Irkutsk region of Russia in conjunction with concurrent remote sensing data analysis. The study areas located in the discontinuous permafrost zone allow examination of the dynamics of wildfires in permafrost peatlands and adjacent forested areas. Interviews revealed an unusual prevalence and witness-observed characteristics of smoldering peatland fires over permafrost, such as longer than expected fire risk periods, impacts on community infrastructure, changes in migration of wild animals, and an increasing number of smoldering wildfires including overwintering “zombie fires” in the last five years. The analysis of concurrent satellite remote sensing data confirmed observations from communities, but demonstrated a limited capacity of satellite imagery to accurately capture changing wildfire activity in permafrost peatlands, which may have significant implications for global climate.

Community Risk and Resilience to Wildfires: Rethinking the Complex Human–Climate–Fire Relationship in High-Latitude Regions

“…This, in turn, can cause, amongst other things, food insecurity, health issues triggered by a lack of sanitation, human displacement, and the loss of social ties and a sense of place and cultural identity, along with road network damages, power and communication infrastructure disruption, and business activity interruptions [13,140]. Communities with network dependencies (e.g., transportation hubs), limited institutional and regulatory systems, limited sanitation services, an aging infrastructure, low incomes, and subsistence economies may be more exposed and sensitive to these cascading impacts [117,123] to the point that these factors can overwhelm a community's capacity to respond and recover (resilience 2 ), heightening the risk of crossing unknown response capacity tipping points [65].…”

“…In the context of Sebyan-Kyuyol, the ex post impacts of wildfires are based on the natural features of the landscape and the socio-demographic characteristics of the community. While the absence of nearby peatlands reduces the likelihood of smoldering fires [146], the community's semi-nomadic and traditional livelihoods increase its exposure/vulnerability to changes in key plant and animal species driven by wildfires burning in other parts of Sakha, making reindeer herding, berry picking, and hunting more difficult [117,172,173]. This situation, nevertheless, is expected to worsen with ongoing and projected climate change, which is increasing the availability of surface fuels and exacerbating the risk of the direct impacts of wildfires [8].…”

“…For example, the exposure/vulnerability of the community to the recurrent impacts of wildfire smoke every summer can be reduced by investing in ventilation systems that maintain indoor air quality [119]. Equally important, efforts can focus on improving firefighting, health, and water treatment infrastructure so the community can withstand future projected increases in wildfire activity near the community [117]. Implementing these responses in Sebyan-Kyuyol would also likely increase the resilience of the community to other extreme climate events, including permafrost thaw, floods, or extreme temperatures [106,165].…”

“…△ [85,91,93-95,98] Place Settlement location, remoteness ↓ ↑ [13,83,85,99-106] Place attachments △ △ [13,105,107-113] (Previous) experiences with wildfires ↑ △ [13,110,114,115] Infrastructure and access to resources △ △ [85,99,100,106,110,115,11 6] Social networks and learning (e.g., community support) ↑ ↓ [13,99,105,111,113,117] Public perceptions, attitudes, awareness, and mistrust △ △ [13,99,106-108,110,114,115] Health and mental conditions (e.g., chronic diseases) ↓ ↑ [105,106,111,113,116,119, 122] Institutional Livelihood (hunters, farmers, loggers, etc. )↑ ↑[13,99,105,108,111,114,117,[123][124][125][126]…”

Influence of Terrain Slope on Sub-Surface Fire Behavior in Boreal Forests of China

“…However, literature on sub-surface fires is scarce. Most of the studies in this field are directed mainly towards peat fires [9][10][11], and only few studies are on fires in humus layers [12,13]. Oxygen content, fuel density, moisture content of fuel, terrain, and meteorological conditions are considered to be the important factors affecting the fire behavior [14][15][16][17].…”