The impact of increasing fire frequency on forest transformations in southern Siberia

Kukavskaya, Elena; Buryak, L. V.; Shvetsov, E. G.; Conard, S. G.; Kalenskaya, O. P.

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2016.10.015

Cited by 86 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…They found that, compared to the typical mature black spruce stands (70-120 years old), intermediate-aged stands (37-52 years old) emitted less carbon to the atmosphere but displayed significantly greater percent depth reductions and much less remaining carbon in their organic soils. As these systems experience more frequent wildfires, this implies they will experience a continuued reduction of their soil layers and combustion of older 'legacy' carbon (Walker et al 2019), with negative impacts on permafrost preservation and potential switches to more deciduousdominated forests or even shrublands and grasslands (Kukavskaya et al 2016). Fires in boreal peatlands are also a major concern because of the carbon they contain and the emissions associated with smouldering combustion, particularly CH 4 for its climate impacts and Hg for its nervous system toxicity and downstream impacts on food chains (Turetsky et al 2006).…”

Section: Understanding Contemporary Fire Patterns Drivers and Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Focus on changing fire regimes: interactions with climate, ecosystems, and society

Rogers

Balch

Goetz

et al. 2020

Environ. Res. Lett.

143

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Fire is a complex Earth system phenomenon that fundamentally affects vegetation distributions, biogeochemical cycling, climate, and human society across most of Earth's land surface. Fire regimes are currently changing due to multiple interacting global change drivers, most notably climate change, land use, and direct human influences via ignition and suppression. It is therefore critical to better understand the drivers, patterns, and impacts of these changing fire regimes now and continuing into the future. Our review contributes to this focus issue by synthesizing results from 27 studies covering a broad range of topics. Studies are categorized into (i) Understanding contemporary fire patterns, drivers, and effects; (ii) Human influences on fire regimes; (iii) Changes in historical fire regimes; (iv) Future projections; (v) Novel techniques; and (vi) Reviews. We conclude with a discussion on progress made, major remaining research challenges, and recommended directions.

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Section: Understanding Contemporary Fire Patterns Drivers and Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Focus on changing fire regimes: interactions with climate, ecosystems, and society

Rogers

Balch

Goetz

et al. 2020

Environ. Res. Lett.

143

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“…We investigated processes of post-fire recovery in differing forest types in the Zabaikal region. According to in situ data (Buryak et al 2016, Kukavskaya et al 2016), in undisturbed pine stands growing on dry sandy and sandy-loam soils, regeneration consists of pine seedlings only (on average, 2.2×10 3 per ha). Fires of both low and high severities result in a decrease of regeneration to 0.9-0.5× 10 3 per ha, respectively, due to consumption of the shallow organic layer, soil dehydration, and post-fire grass proliferation (figure 2(a)).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For our sample sites, the maximum MODIS-derived surface temperature was 49°C. According to Kukavskaya et al (2016) the summer temperature on the burned sites in the Zabaikal region can reach 60°C, causing thermal stress and limiting seedling regeneration.…”

Section: Influence Of Environmental Variables On Postfire Vegetation mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Severe fire seasons generally occur every 3-5 years. The most severe fire seasons (2003, 2007, 2008 and 2015) were characterized by the early beginning of the fire activity (in March) and burned areas exceeding one million hectares of forested lands (Buryak et al 2016, Kukavskaya et al 2016). Krylov et al (2014) reported that the portion of area burned by stand replacement fires in the Zabaikal region varies between 10% and 20%.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assessment of post-fire vegetation recovery in Southern Siberia using remote sensing observations

Shvetsov

Kukavskaya

Buryak

et al. 2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Wildfire is one of the main disturbances affecting forest dynamics, succession, and the carbon cycle in Siberian forests. The Zabaikal region in southern Siberia is characterized by one of the highest levels of fire activity in Russia. Time series of Landsat data and field measurements of the reforestation state were analyzed in order to estimate post-fire vegetation recovery. The results showed that the normalized burn ratio time series can be used to estimate forest recovery in the pine-and larchdominated forests of the Zabaikal region. Multiple factors determine a forest's recovery rate after a wildfire, including fire severity, tree species characteristics, topography, hydrology, soil properties, and climate. Assessing these factors is important if we are to understand the effects of fire on forest succession and to implement sustainable forest management strategies. In this work we used the field data and Landsat data to estimate post-fire vegetation dynamics as a function of several environmental factors. These factors include fire severity, pre-fire forest state, topography, and positive surface temperature anomalies. A regression model showed that fire frequency, fire severity, and surface temperature anomalies are the primary factors, explaining about 58% of the variance in post-fire recovery. High frequency of fire and positive surface temperature anomalies hamper the post-fire reforestation process, while more severe burns are followed by higher recovery rates. Further studies are necessary to consider other important factors such as soil properties, moisture, and precipitation, for better explanation of post-fire vegetation recovery.

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“…The invasion by these exotic grasses has serious implications for ecosystem function (Strauss et al 2006;Sands and Goolsby 2013;Turpie 2016) especially for Fraser Island and the Great Sandy Region where for example Guinea grass has become established, as these grasses alter fire regime dynamics through increasing the distribution and abundance of fine fuels. With increased fine fuels there is a serious danger that there will be an increase in fire frequency and intensity resulting in higher severity burns and higher vegetation mortality, with possible local species extinctions and habitat modification or change (Enright 2011;Kukavskaya et al 2016). This paper will provide a review of the natural historical fire regimes for northern and eastern Australia and examine the impacts of invasive exotic grasses on fire frequency and intensity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changing Fire Regimes in Tropical and Subtropical Australia

Stewart¹

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The focus of the study is to investigate regional and local past, present and future changes in fire regimes of tropical and subtropical Queensland and shifts in vegetation composition and structure. Fire has been shown to be a significant driver of ecosystem evolution, composition and distribution through its impact on biota. Within Australia fire has long played a role in shaping the landscape, with increased fire frequency, associated with heightened aridity, over the last five million years promoting the expansion of fire adapted sclerophyll vegetation across the continent. Evidence of anthropogenic fires date back to approximately 50 ka (thousand years ago) with the advent of Aboriginal occupation and fire-stick practices, however with the arrival of Europeans there was a decline in fire frequencies, related to fire exclusion that observes an increase in fire intensity and severity.A review of the introduction of tropical African perennial grasses to improve grazing in tropical and semi-arid regions of northern Australia was also undertaken. This introduction has resulted in some exotic grass species such as Gamba grass (Andropogon gayanus), Mission grass (Cenchrus polystachios syn. Pennisetum polystachion) and Guinea grass (Megathyrsus maximus syn. Panicum maximum Jacq. var. trichoglume) becoming invasive pests. Invasion by these exotic grasses has serious implications for ecosystem function, altering fire regime dynamics through increasing the distribution and abundance of fine fuels. With increased fine fuels there is a serious danger that there will be an increase in fire frequency and intensity resulting in higher severity burns and higher vegetation mortality, with possible local species extinctions and habitat modification or change.Macro charcoal and pollen records were used from Fraser Island, subtropical eastern Australia to identify fire and vegetation histories, which show substantial temporal and spatial changes in past fire frequencies and vegetation composition for the last 24,000 years. Pollen records show pyrophobic rainforest taxa dominated and then declined while pyrogenic sclerophyll arboreal taxa increased correlating with an increase in fire frequencies, and a dryer climate. This was followed by a dramatic increase in Restionaceae values at the beginning of the Holocene (~10,000 years ago) that dropped off as a marked peak in mangroves, primarily the Rhizophoraceae and Melaleuca iii occurred, possibly linked with sea level rise approximately 6000 to 5000 years ago, which was also associated with lower fire frequencies. Restionaceae then recovered from around 2 ka to the European settlement period, when a dramatic change in fire frequency occurred linked to fire suppression and was followed by vegetation thickening (i.e. increase in arboreal taxa) in the mid to late 20 th century. Identifying past and present fire regimes and vegetation composition are important for fire modelling as this provides possible scenario based probabilities for changes in fire frequency and intensity....

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The impact of increasing fire frequency on forest transformations in southern Siberia

Cited by 86 publications

References 24 publications

Focus on changing fire regimes: interactions with climate, ecosystems, and society

Focus on changing fire regimes: interactions with climate, ecosystems, and society

Assessment of post-fire vegetation recovery in Southern Siberia using remote sensing observations

Changing Fire Regimes in Tropical and Subtropical Australia

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