Asymmetrical Lightning Fire Season Expansion in the Boreal Forest of Northeast China

Forests

Chunming Shi¹  Xiaoxu Wu¹  Cong Gao¹  Ran An¹  Wenqian Wang¹  Guocan Wu¹  Kezhen Liu²  Lifu Shu³  Mingyu Wang³ 

[1] College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China;Department of Public Security, Nanjing Forest Police College, Nanjing 210023, China;Research Institute of Forest Ecology, Environment and Protection, Key Laboratory of Forest Protection of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China;

关键词: lightning fire;    fire season;    boreal forest;    asymmetrical expansion;   

DOI  :  10.3390/f12081023

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

All-season warming is assumed to advance snowmelt and delay snow accumulation; additionally, coupled with warming-induced drought stress, all-season warming could extend both the beginning and the end of the fire season. Using fire data updated for 1968–2018, we found an asymmetrical expansion of the lightning fire season in the boreal forest of Northeast China. Lightning fires have not advanced into the early fire season (May–June) but have largely extended into the snowless late fire season (July–September) since the late 1990s (mean end Julian date delayed by 51.1 days for 1998–2018 compared with 1968–1997, p < 0.001). Despite significant warming, the Julian days of snowmelt have changed only slightly, which has prohibited the fire season from advancing into early spring. The expansion of lightning fires into July–September was associated with a warming-induced significant increase in evapotranspiration and a decrease in soil/fuel moisture.

【 授权许可】

Unknown