Assessment of post-fire forest cover loss in Siberia and its relationship with wildfire characteristics using satellite data
E. G. Shvetsov
Krasnoyarsk Science Centre of the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Science, Krasnoyarsk, Russia
Keywords: wildfires, forest disturbance degree, fire radiative power, FRP, MODIS, Siberia
Abstract
The paper examines the influence of several fire characteristics including fire energy release, seasonality and duration on the number of wildfires resulting in tree stands mortality in Siberia between 2002 and 2022. Fire energy release was assessed using Fire Radiative Power (FRP), measured using MODIS data. To assess the degree of forest stands disturbance and to identify fires resulted in the forest stand mortality, a global forest cover change product generated from Landsat satellite data was used. Siberia experienced an increase in both total burned area and the area of stand replacing fires between 2002 and 2022. At the same time, an increase in the fire radiative power was also observed. The total values of fire radiative power for stand replacing fires (390.2 (σ = 80.5) MW/km2) were significantly higher ( p < 0.01) comparing to fires that did not result in the tree stands mortality (291.8 (σ = 74.7) MW/km2). Fire radiative power in dark coniferous forests was 20-25% higher comparing to FRP in mixed forests with a predominance of deciduous stands. Stand replacing fires were mainly observed in the late summer with the peak occurring in July - first half of August, while non-stand replacing fires were observed throughout the entire fire season. Stand replacing fires were also characterized by a longer duration (average duration 4.8 (σ = 1.0) days) compared to non-stand replacing fires (3.9 (σ = 0.7) days).
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