Modeling surface fuels moisture content in Pinus brutia stands

Fuel moisture content is an important variable for forest fires because it affects fuel ignition and fire behavior. In order to accurately predict fuel ignition potential, fuel moisture content must be assessed by evaluating fire spread, fireline intensity and fuel consumption.Our objective here is to model moisture content of surface fuels in normally stocked Calabrian pine(Pinus brutia Ten.) stands in relation to weather conditions, namely temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed in the Mugla province of Turkey. All surface fuels were categorized according to diameter classes and fuel types. Six fuel categories were defined: these were 0–0.3, 0.3–0.6, and0.6–1 cm diameter classes, and cone, surface litter, and duff. Plastic containers 15 9 20 cm in size with 1 9 1 mm mesh size were used. Samples were taken from 09:00 to19:00 h and weighed every 2 h with 0.01 g precision for10 days in August. At the end of the study, samples were taken to the laboratory, oven-dried at 105 °C for 24 h and weighed to obtain fuel-moisture contents. Weather measurements were taken from a fully automated weather station set up at the study site prior to the study. Correlation and regression analyses were carried out and models were developed to predict fuel moisture contents for desorption and adsorption phase for each fuel type categories. Practical fuel moisture prediction models were developed for dry period. Models were developed that performed well with reasonable accuracy, explaining up to 92 and 95.6%of the variability in fuel-moisture contents for desorption and adsorption phases, respectively. Validation of the models were conducted using an independent data set and known fuel moisture prediction models. The predictive power of the models was satisfactory with mean absolute error values being 1.48 and 1.02 for desorption and adsorption as compared to the 2.05 and 1.60 values for the Van Wagner's hourly litter moisture content prediction model. Results obtained in this study will be invaluable for fire management planning and modeling.     

Forest Fires and Prevention Strategies in Northwestern Region of China

The paper described the natural conditions and forest types in Northwestern Region of China. Most forests in the region are distributed in subalpine areas. It is important to protect the existent forests in the region for maintaining ecological balance. According to the statistics results of 1991~2000, the paper analyzes the forest fires distribution and fire severity. Annually the numbers of forest fires range from 52 to 240. The incidence rate of forest fires in Northwestern Region is under 0.33 per ten thousand ha. There are 0.67-64.4 ha burned area per ten thousand ha forest. The main reasons for forest fires lie in the dry weather conditions, many firebrands, and high fuel loading. The strategies of fire management in the region are to stress the fire education in forest regions, strength the firebrands' management, emphasize the fuel management, and improve the fire monitoring and fire control ability.     

Wildfire effects on permafrost and soil moisture in spruce forests of Interior Alaska

In the summer of 2015,hundreds of forest fires burned across the state of Alaska.Several uncontrolled wildfires near the town of Tanana on the Yukon River were responsible for the largest portion of the area burned statewide.In July 2017,field measurements were carried out in both unburned and burned forested areas nearly adjacent to one another,all within 15 miles of the village of Tanana.These surveys were used to first visually verify locations of different burn severity classes,(low,moderate,or high),estimated in 2016 from Landsat images(collected before and after the 2015 Tanana-area wildfires).Surface and soil profile measurements to 30-cm depth at these same locations were collected for evidence of moss layer and forest biomass burning.Soil temperature and moisture content were measured to 30-cm depth,and depth to permafrost was estimated by excavation wherever necessary.Digital thermal infra-red images of the soil profiles were taken at each site location,and root-zone organic layer samples were extracted for further chemical analysis.Results supported the hypothesis that the loss of surface organic layers is a major factor determining post-fire soil water and temperature changes and the depth of permafrost thawing.In the most severely burned forest sites,complete consumption of the living moss organic layer was strongly associated with both warming at the surface layer and increases in soil water content,relative to unburned forest sites.Soil temperatures at both 10-cm and 30-cm depths at burned forest sites were higher by 8-10C compared to unburned sites.Below 15 cm,temperatures of unburned sites dropped gradually to frozen levels by 30 cm,while soil temperatures at burned sites remained above 5C to 30-cm depth.The water content measured at 3 cm at burned sites was commonly in excess of 30%by volume,compared to unburned sites.The strong correlation between burn index values and depth to permafrost measured across all sites sampled in July 2017 showed that the new ice-free profile in severely burned forest areas was commonly 50-cm deeper than in unburned soils.     

Ecosystem carbon and nitrogen storage following farmland afforestation with black locust(Robinia pseudoacacia) on the Loess Plateau,China

Although afforestation of farmlands has been proposed as an effective method of carbon(C) sequestration, there remain uncertainties that deter us from developing a clear picture of C stocks in plantation ecosystems.This study investigated the dynamics of stand structure and plant diversity, and C and nitrogen(N) pools in trees,herbs, litter, and soil(0–100 cm depth) in black locust plantations aged 9, 17, 30, and 37 years, and in newly abandoned farmlands as pre-afforestation sites, on the Loess Plateau, China. Stand density decreased significantly, while tree diameter at breast height and height increased during stand development. The dominant species of the herb layer differed with age. Afforestation resulted in slight increases in tree C and N storage in plantations from 9 to 30 years of age, and then significantly increased from 30 to 37 years. Compared to pre-afforestation, C and N storage in soil decreased to minimum values in stands aged 17 and 9 years, respectively. The soil re-accumulated C and N during stand development, attaining equilibrium levels similar to those in pre-afforestation when stands reached about 30 years of age. Soil C and N storage in 37-year stands were 29 and 16% higher, respectively, than in pre-afforestation levels. However, C and N concentrations in the subsoil(20–40 cm) were still less than the preafforestation levels for stands of all ages(from 9 to 37 years). The relative contribution to the total ecosystem C and N pools increased in trees and decreased in soil during the observed period. Our results indicate that afforestation reduced soil C and N storage during the early stages of stand development. We conclude that the growing phase of an afforested stand over its initial 30 years is important for C and N sequestration by black locust due to the C and N storage that result from recovered soil quality and an increase in tree biomass.     

Forest fire risk indices and zoning of hazardous areas in Sorocaba,Sao Paulo state,Brazil

This study compares the performance of three fire risk indices for accuracy in predicting fires in semideciduous forest fragments,creates a fire risk map by integrating historical fire occurrences in a probabilistic density surface using the Kernel density estimator(KDE)in the municipality of Sorocaba,Sao Paulo state,Brazil.The logarithmic Telicyn index,Monte Alegre formula(MAF)and enhanced Monte Alegre formula(MAF+)were employed using data for the period 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2016.Meteorological data and numbers of fire occurrences were obtained from the National Institute of Meteorology(INMET)and the Institute for Space Research(INPE),respectively.Two performance measures were calculated:Heidke skill score(SS)and success rate(SR).The MAF+index was the most accurate,with values of SS and SR of 0.611%and 62.8%,respectively.The fire risk map revealed two most susceptible areas with high(63 km^2)and very high(47 km^2)risk of fires in the municipality.Identification of the best risk index and the generation of fire risk maps can contribute to better planning and cost reduction in preventing and fighting forest fires.     

Monitor Forest Fires with FY Serial Satellites

Remote sensing as the measure to monitor disasters has the advantage of temporal resolution and large scale. Since "5.6 catastrophe" in 1987, China began to monitor forest fires broadly. In the summer of 2002, many forest/grass fires occurred in the Daxing'anling Mountains, and the damage was very heavy. In the forest fires fighting, the meteorological satellites play an important role in monitoring the fires. Especially the FY serial meteorological satellites have the advantage of large scale monitoring and characteristics of being in time and exact, and get good results. Remote sensing techniques have been used in many aspects of forest/grass fires research, including burned area and fireline intensity evaluation, post fire environment monitoring etc.     

Long-term effect of fire on herbaceous species diversity in oriental beech (Fagus orientalis Lipsky) forests in northern Iran

We studied the long-term impacts of natural burning on herbaceous species diversity 37 years after a fire occurred in the Roudbar forests of Guilan Province, northern Iran. Numerous studies have examined short-term changes in understory vegetation following wildfire; however, very few long-term studies are available or changes inferred from retrospective studies based on chronosequences. For this study, 170 ha of forest (85 ha, burned areas; 85 ha, unburned areas) were surveyed. Because the 1000 m 2 plots were too large for detailed measurements of herbaceous species, we determined a sub-sample size according to the Whittaker’s nested plot sampling protocol and minimal areas method. Hence, sub-plots of 32 m 2 were used for herbaceous species measurements, which consisted of percent cover of each species based on the Domin criterion. We measured plant diversity (Shannon-Wiener index), species richness (Margalef’s index), and evenness (Smith-Wilson index). Mean percent cover, together with diversity, richness and evenness, increased markedly in burned areas compared to unburned controls. This suggests that the biodiversity of these forests could be restored within 37 years after fire. However, the abundance of invasive species such as Rubus fruticosus and Bromus benekenii increased significantly in burned areas, but these could be controlled by relevant silvicultural operations.     

Precision Fire Hazard Divisions for Collective Forest in Southern China

This paper focuses on how to build the model of precision fire hazard divisions in the level of forest resources sub-compartment.Based on 3D GIS technology and characteristics of forest fires in collective forest of southern China,this study utilized Lin’an City,Zhejiang Province as the experimental area.Forest fire factors were divided into 11 indexes from the three categories(social and economic factors,forestry characteristics,and meteorological characteristics) and weighted for analysis.Next,three eigenvectors(one for each category) were created to build a nonlinear mathematical model called precision fire hazard divisions for forests.Then,the model was used to optimize and test forest fire hazard divisions with the least squares.Results showed that experimental and theoretical values of error were less than 0.1. Thus,in the experimental area this model and the fire occurrence history matched.     

Effects of Different Forest Fire Intensities on Microbial Community Functional Diversity in Forest Soil in Daxing’anling

Microbial community functional diversity is a sensitive indicator of soil.Forest fires can change microbial community functional diversity.In this research,the fired soil samples were collected from Huzhong of Daxing’anling in Heilongjiang Province. The functional diversity of soil microbial community was detected by BIOLOG system.The average well color development(AWCD) in BIOLOG plates indicated the ability of carbon substrate utilization of microbial community.The indices of Shannon, Simpson and Mcintosh were calculated to show the richness,dominance and evenness of the functional diversity,and the principal component analysis of substrate reactions reflected the main carbon sources utilized by microbial community.The results showed that all the samples exhibited the reduction of AWCD during the first 144 hours of incubation,but there were obvious differences in the reduction degree among the samples.All kinds of fire intensities could influence microbial community functional diversity. The low fire intensity increased the richness (Shannon),dominance(Simpson) and evenness (Mcintosh) of microbial community.However,the intermediate and high fire intensity reduced these parameters,suggesting that the burned soil emitted gaseous nitrogen,a number of organic carbon and available phosphorus,which caused the reduction of the microorganism in quantity and type,and change in soil ingredients.The organic material reduced in the burned soil,in the same time,the pH values rose,which changed environment in which microorganism lives.The changed environment might not be conducive to activities of the microorganism.The principal component analysis showed that the main carbon sources for soil microbes were carbohydrates and amino acids and the carbon substrate utilization patterns in different samples were significant different.The results indicated that functional diversity of soil microbes were altered by forest fires,and the ability of microbes to utilize carbon source and the type of carbon sources were affected by dif     

Evaluation of forest disturbance in south-west Zabaikalia （East Siberia）Evaluation of forest disturbance in south-west Zabaikalia （East Siberia）Evaluation of forest disturbance in south-west Zabaikalia （East Siberia）

The forest estate in south-west Zabaikalia, a territory included in the Lake Baikal catchment area, has been investigated. For this purpose we have used both data of our own studies and monitoring data of environmental protection bodies. It shows that in our study area, fires, fellings, entomo-parasites and air pollution are the major negative factors affecting the state of the forest. In the period from 2003 to 2008 fires were registered in the area of over 500 thousand ha, pest foci in the forests covering an area of over 330 thousand ha, where almost 5 million m3 wood was cut in an area of about 43 thousand ha. The total area of forests in our study affected by air pollution amounts to about 700 thousand ha. According to the results, forest pollution in the territory is concentrated in the vicinity of large-scale industrial complexes, for distances up to about 40 km. The total area of forests weakened by air pollution amounts to about 2 million ha.     

Herbaceous species diversity in relation to fire severity in Zagros oak forests,Iran

Zagros forests are mainly covered byQuercus brantii L. coppices and oak sprout clumps occupy the forest area like patches. We investigated post-fire herbaceous diversity in the first growing season after fire. For this purpose neighboring burned and unburned areas were selected with the same plant species and ecological conditions. The data were collected from areas subjected to different fire severities. Overall 6 treatments were considered with respect to fire severity and the mi-crosites of inside and outside of oak sprout clumps including： unburned inside and outside of sprout clumps （Ni and No）, inside of sprout clumps that burned with high fire severity （H）, inside of sprout clumps that burned with moderate fire severity （M）, outside of sprout clumps that burned with low fire severity （OH and OM）. Different herbaceous com-position was observed in the unburned inside and outside of oak sprout clumps. The species diversity and richness were increased in treatments burned with low and moderate fire severity. However, in treatment burned with high fire severity （H）, herbaceous cover was reduced, even-ness was increased, and richness and diversity were not significantly changed. We concluded that besides the microsites conditions in forest, fire severity is an inseparable part of the ecological effect of fire on her-baceous composition.     

Evolution of forest cover in Portugal: A review of the 12th–20th centuries

Portugal's forests in the 12th century were dominated by the Fagaceae represented by Quercus and Castanea, and several pine species.From the 12th century onwards, forests underwent changes in their management starting with protection and ultimately leading to intense exploitation. The massive naval construction during the maritime expansion(mainly in the 15th–16th centuries) involved felling of approximately 5 million trees mainly Quercus suber, Pinus pinea and other Quercus species. Cumulative fuel-wood consumption of 959 Mm3 during 1300–1854 was attributed to demographic expansion while the deforestation rate during 1636–1854 accounted for a minimum of 72.6% and a maximum of 96% of total forest cover. The volume of timber used in railway sleepers from 1856 onwards might have reached 0.5 Mm3. The last quarter of the 20th century increased the forest cover of Portugal through the World Bank program of Eucalyptus globulus reforestation.     

Inventory of aspen trees in spruce dominated stands in conserva-tion area

Background: The occurrence of aspen trees increases the conservation value of mature conifer dominated forests.Aspens typically occur as scattered individuals among major tree species, and therefore the inventory of aspens is challenging.Methods: We characterized aspen populations in a boreal nature reserve using diameter distribution, spatial pattern, and forest attributes: volume, number of aspens, number of large aspen stems and basal area median diameter. The data were collected from three separate forest stands in Koli National Park, eastern Finland. At each site, we measured breast height diameter and coordinates of each aspen. The comparison of inventory methods of aspens within the three stands was based on simulations with mapped field data. We mimicked stand level inventory by locating varying numbers of fixed area circular plots both systematically and randomly within the stands. Additionally, we also tested if the use of airborne laser scanning(ALS) data as auxiliary information would improve the accuracy of the stand level inventory by applying the probability proportional to size sampling to assist the selection of field plot locations.Results: The results showed that aspens were always clustered, and the diameter distributions indicated different stand structures in the three investigated forest stands. The reliability of the volume and number of large aspen trees varied from relative root mean square error figures above 50% with fewer sample plots(5–10) to values of25%–50% with 10 or more sample plots. Stand level inventory estimates were also able to detect spatial pattern and the shape of the diameter distribution. In addition, ALS-based auxiliary information could be useful in guiding the inventories, but caution should be used when applying the ALS-supported inventory technique.Conclusions: This study characterized European aspen populations for the purposes of monitoring and management of boreal conservation areas. Our results suggest that if the number of sample plots is adequate,i.e. 10 or more stand level inventory will provide accurate enough forest attributes estimates in conservation areas(minimum accuracy requirement of RMSE% is 20%–50%). Even for the more ecologically valuable attributes, such as diameter distribution, spatial pattern and large aspens, the estimates are acceptable for conservation purposes.     

Holocene variations of wildfire occurrence as a guide for sustainable management of the northeastern Canadian boreal forest

Background: Cumulative impacts of wildfires and forest harvesting can cause shifts from closed-crown forest to open woodland in boreal ecosystems. To lower the probability of occurrence of such catastrophic regime shifts,forest logging must decrease when fire frequency increases, so that the combined disturbance rate does not exceed the Holocene maximum. Knowing how climate warming will affect fire regimes is thus crucial to sustainably manage the forest. This study aimed to provide a guide to determine sustainable forest harvesting levels, by reconstructing the Holocene fire history at the northern limit of commercial forestry in Quebec using charcoal particles preserved in lake sediments.Methods: Sediment cores were sampled from four lakes located close to the northern limit of commercial forestry in Quebec. The cores were sliced into consecutive 0.5 cm thick subsamples from which 1 cm3 was extracted to count and measure charcoal particles larger than 150 microns. Age-depth models were obtained for each core based on accelerator mass spectroscopy(AMS) radiocarbon dates. Holocene fire histories were reconstructed by combining charcoal counts and age-depth models to obtain charcoal accumulation rates and, after statistical treatment,long-term trends in fire occurrence(expressed as number of fires per 1000 years).Results: Fire occurrence varied between the four studied sites, but fires generally occurred more often during warm and dry periods of the Holocene, especially during the Holocene Thermal Maximum(7000–3500 cal. BP), when fire occurrence was twice as high as at present.Conclusions: The current fire regime in the study area is still within the natural range of variability observed over the Holocene. However, climatic conditions comparable to the Holocene Thermal Maximum could be reached within the next few decades, thus substantially reducing the amount of wood available to the forest industry.     

Optimizing any-aged management of mixed boreal forest under residual basal area constraints

The current trend of forest management in many countries is reduced use of clear-felling and planting, and increased use of continuous cover management. In Finland, the new forest act of 2014 made all types of cuttings equally allowable on the condition that if the post-cutting residual stand basal area is too low, the stand must be regenerated within certain time frame. Forest landowner can freely choose between evenand uneven-aged management. This study developed a method for optimizing the timing and type of cuttings without the need to categorize the management system as either even-aged or uneven-aged. A management system that does not set any requirements on the sequence of post-cutting diameter distributions is called any-aged management. Planting or sowing was used when stand basal area fell below the required minimum basal area and the amount of advance regeneration was less than required in the regulations. When the cuttings of 200 stands managed earlier with even-aged silviculture were optimized with the developed system, final felling followed by artificial regeneration was selected for almost 50% of stands. Reduction of the minimum basal area limit greatly decreased the use of artificial regeneration but improved profitability, suggesting that the truly optimal management would be to use natural regeneration in financially mature stands. The optimal type of thinning was high thinning in 97–99 % of cases. It was calculated that the minimum basal area requirement reduced the mean net present value of the stands by 12–16 % when discount rate was 3–5 %.     

Summer Forest Fire Meteorological Environment in the North of Daxingan Mountains

In recent years, especially in the summer of 2002, the most serious forest fires occurred in the Daxingan Mountain of Heilongjiang province and Inner Mongolia. There has been long time serious forest fire environment in summer in Daxingan Mountain. The grass in the forest is scorched for long time drought and the moisture content of litter and turf layer decrease rapidly. The accumulation and dryness of fuel build the summer forest fire environment, which are major caused by Meteorological environment. Human are lack of the right recognition of summer fires, and can not achieve the goal of detecting and fighting in time. Also summer fires have the tendency to increase in some areas of the world and human have to pay much more attention to how to prevent and control summer fires.     

Assessing the effects of long-term recreational activities on landscape changes in Abant Natural Park,Turkey

Natural, protected areas offer many possibilities for recreation in rural areas such as camping, one of the most popular activities. The system established for protected areas in Turkey aims to provide a foundation for conserving areas for recreation. One such area, Abant Natural Park, is convenient for visits from Turkey's two most populated metropolitan areas, Istanbul and Ankara. It also attracts tourists from other regions and countries. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the vegetation loss and land cover changes due to picnic/camping, transhumance, and construction over 40 years(1966–2004) in the park using data on visitor numbers, vegetation patches,corridors and connectivity. For evaluating landscape variables, remote sensing data and aerial photos were used.When aerial photos were imported into the ERDAS Imagine program, ground control points identified, and individual images orthorectified, land degradation was not found in the use of camping areas. Moreover, manmade areas(road, car park and hotel) observably increased, thus decreasing the forest lands. The findings show that the land use types that have had the greatest ecological impact aretranshumance and construction of hotels, which also require infrastructure development. The intensity of the ecological effects mandates precautions to lessen the impacts and the need for continuing assessment to ensure sustainable use of the area.     

Evapotranspiration of a Populus euphratica forest during the growing season in an extremely arid region of northwest China using the Shuttleworth–Wallace model

Thus far, measurements and estimations of actual evapotranspiration(ET) in extremely arid areas are still insufficient. Based on successive observations from June–September 2014, we simulated ET of a Populus euphratica Oliv. forest during the growing season in an extremely arid region of northwest China using the Shuttleworth–Wallace(S–W) model. Simulated ET values were compared to those of the eddy-covariance(EC) method on a 1 h interval. With a root mean square error(RMSE),relative error(RE) and mean absolute error(MAE) of0.192, 3.100 and 0.165 mm h-1, respectively, model performance was not satisfactory. In particular, on days with strong winds(Sep. 11–13), deviations between simulated and observed ET values increased to 0.275, 0.878 and0.251 mm h-1, RMSE, RE and MAE respectively. These values were significantly greater than those in other study periods and were most likely owing to sharp increases in wind speed. As a result, there were substantial advective effects, which is not consistent with the assumption of the S–W model that there are no advective effects or mesoscale circulation patterns induced by surface discontinuities.     

Discrepancies between targets and achievements in industrial forest production and export in Tanzania

It is important to revisit our plans and compare what was ideally targeted against what was actually achieved in implementation.In comparing the achievements with targets,strengths or weaknesses of established strategies can be accepted or corrections implemented since a plan also outlines some strategies for achieving the targets set.In this study,achievements in production and export of industrial forest products,i.e.,sawn wood,plywood,chipboard and fibreboard,paper and paperboard and industrial round wood,are compared against targeted figures for 1996 for Tanzania.Discrepancies were obtained by subtracting targeted from achieved values and expressed both as absolute and relative differences in terms of the targeted values,with a negative sign for production where achievements were less than targets and a positive sign when achievements were higher than targets.Values achieved ranged from 4%-100% of the targeted values,depending on the product,and were only higher than the targeted value for industrial round wood.Possible causes of the discrepancies are inefficiency of parastatal companies,low private investment,sub-maximal industrial operation and plant inefficiencies.Discrepancies could also result from unrealistic data used in planning due to difficulty in data availability and poor intra-and inter-sectoral coordination.The implications of these discrepancies are low contributions of the wood-based industry to the national economy,increased import substitution of wood-based products,increased socio-economic and environmental degradation and decreased integrity in planning and policy making.     

Forest Fire Environment and Characteristics in Northeastern China

Forest fires occurrence is influenced by many factors, such as inter-annual weather variations and regional fuel distributions. Fires occurrence in different forest region has distinct spatial and temporal characteristics. The paper studied the natural forest fire environment in Northeastern China, as well as forest fires occurrence, burned area and fire seasons in Northeastern Forest Region. The result shows that more than 50% of annual burned area occurred in Northeast China Forest Region. Main fire seasons in the region are spring and autumn. Fires occurrence in spring is larger than that in autumn. There are few fires in summer. The authors＇ suggestions for fire management department are to emphasize the fuel management, improve the roads conditions, and enhance the fires control ability.