Determining Regional Carbon Emissions under Variable Fire Regimes in Central Siberia
Douglas
J.
McRae, Canadian Forest Service, dmcrae@nrcan.gc.ca
Susan
G.
Conard, US Forest Service, sconard@fs.fed.us
(Presenting)
Galina
A.
Ivanova, Sukachev Institute of Forest Research, green@akadem.ru
Stephen
P.
Baker, US Forest Service, sbaker01@fs.fed.us
Anatoli
I.
Sukhinin, Sukachev Institute of Forest Research, boss@krasn.ksc.ru
Wei
Min
Hao, US Forest Service, whao@fs.fed.us
Tom
M.
Blake, Canadian Forest Service, tblake@nrcan.gc.ca
To quantify the contribution of fires in Russia’s extensive boreal forest to global carbon balance and greenhouse gases requires accurate estimates of carbon emissions from the wildfires that burn 10 to 20 million ha in Russia annually. In this project we are focusing on estimating emissions from wildfires in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) and larch (Larix sp.) in central Siberia. These two forest types together make up 58% of the forest area in the Asian portion of Russia. Our overall objective is to develop validated estimates of fire areas, fire severity, emissions, and the impact of fire on carbon balance. This project builds on our past research efforts in Scots pine forests (2000-2004), while initiating similar research in larch forests. Since 2000, we have conducted and intensively sampled 20 experimental fires and obtained remote sensing data and ground data on over 50 wildfires. We have developed fire spread, fuel consumption, and emission data from the experimental fires, and developed models relating emissions and fuel consumption to the condition of fuels and the weather conditions during and before the fires. These models are critical because the fire behavior and emissions vary widely, with emissions in our experimental fires (which did not include crown fires) ranging from about 2 to 15 t/ha of carbon.
Satellite images of active fires and postfire conditions can help us to differentiate between crown fires and surface fires, but it is more problematical to estimate fuel consumption, which is necessary for calculating carbon emissions. As reported here, we have modeled the relationship of carbon emissions to the Canadian Fire Weather Index (FWI) for experimental fires. By combining these models with a geospatial interpolation of the FWI for central Siberia, we have developed a method to estimate emissions on a per ha basis for wildfires that occur in Scots pine forests across central Siberia, using active fire imagery and mapped perimeters from MODIS, AVHRR or other data.
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