Anatoly Sukhinin

DETERMINING EFFECTS OF AREA BURNED AND FIRE SEVERITY ON CARBON CYCLING AND EMISSIONS IN SIBERIA

The Russian boreal forest contains about 25% of the global terrestrial biomass, and even a higher percentage of the carbon stored in litter and soils. Fire burns large areas annually, much of it in low-severity surface fires – but data on fire area and impacts or extent of varying fire severity are poor. Changes in land use, cover, and disturbance patterns such as those predicted by global climate change models, have the potential to greatly alter current fire regimes in boreal forests and to significantly impact global carbon budgets. The extent and global importance of fires in the boreal zone have often been greatly underestimated. For the 1998 fire season we estimate from remote sensing data that about 13.3 million ha burned in Siberia. This is about 5 times higher than estimates from the Russian Aerial Forest Protection Service (Avialesookhrana) for the same period. We estimate that fires in the Russian boreal forest in 1998 constituted some 14–20% of average annual global carbon emissions from forest fires. Average annual emissions from boreal zone forests may be equivalent to 23–39% of regional fossil fuel emissions in Canada and Russia, respectively. But the lack of accurate data and models introduces large potential errors into these estimates. Improved monitoring and understanding of the landscape extent and severity of fires and effects of fire on carbon storage, air chemistry, vegetation dynamics and structure, and forest health and productivity are essential to provide inputs into global and regional models of carbon cycling and atmospheric chemistry.

AVHRR-derived fire frequency, distribution and area burned in Siberia

Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data are used to produce an active-fire detection product for the fire season in 1999 and 2000 and an area burned product for 1996–2000. The distribution of fire is presented ranging from the Urals in the west to the eastern coast and from the semi-dry steppe regions in the south through the taiga in the north. A temporal and spatial pattern of fire is observed migrating from north of 40° N latitude in April to north of 60° N by mid-July. Fire is widespread in August, spanning the entire geographic range. In contrast to these patterns, no similar east–west migrations are discernible from these data. Peak active-fire counts are detected in early May between 50 and 55° N latitude in both 1999 and 2000. Wildfire in Russia is highly variable, both annually and interannually, with differences in reported area burned ranging from 0.234 to 13.3 million hectares per year. Comparing Russian fire statistics to satellite-based data from this investigation and previous works, we find area burned in Russia may be commonly underestimated by an average of 213%. Underestimates of this magnitude could strongly affect emissions estimates and climate change research.

The Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership: An Example of Science Applied to Societal Needs

Abstract Northern Eurasia, the largest land-mass in the northern extratropics, accounts for ∼20% of the global land area. However, little is known about how the biogeochemical cycles, energy and water cycles, and human activities specific to this carbon-rich, cold region interact with global climate. A major concern is that changes in the distribution of land-based life, as well as its interactions with the environment, may lead to a self-reinforcing cycle of accelerated regional and global warming. With this as its motivation, the Northern Eurasian Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI) was formed in 2004 to better understand and quantify feedbacks between northern Eurasian and global climates. The first group of NEESPI projects has mostly focused on assembling regional databases, organizing improved environmental monitoring of the region, and studying individual environmental processes. That was a starting point to addressing emerging challenges in the region related to rapidly and simultaneously...

Effects of fires in ribbon-like pine forests of southern Siberia

For the Tsasuchei, Balgazyn, Minusinsk, and Shushensk ribbon-like pine forests of southern Siberia, conditions of ignition and development of fires are analyzed and the flammability is evaluated. Fire effects on vegetation, including forest stand condition and reforestation, are evaluated. It is shown that a reduction in the area of ribbon-like pine forests of southern Siberia caused by crown fires leads to steppification of these areas.