Estimating wildfire-attributed boreal forest burn in Central and Eastern Siberia during summer of 2016

Sammanfattning: Changing climate affects various ecosystem processes within the boreal forest, wildfire among them. Meanwhile temperature is commonly accepted as one of the most important regulating factors. In the context of 2016 being the warmest year in observational history, this review attempts to identify changes in wildfire extent within the central and south-eastern Siberian taiga. Satellite based estimates for late spring and early summer of 2016 quantify total burned area as being just over 39400 km2. July is identified as the month contributing most, showing burn extents over 7 times higher than June. The midsummer increase is hypothesized to be governed by mostly local scale weather conditions, temperature among them, but specific processes remain a topic of further investigation. Comparison with historical data from 2001 and 2002 reveals a positive trend in total burned area. The trend is partially attributed to a 65% increase in global surface temperature anomaly between the two study periods. Reviews of climate projections reveal that wildfires will have strong impacts on the future shape of the boreal forest ecosystem. Additionally, wildfire regime alterations are predicted to change how boreal forests contribute to the global carbon balance.