A remote sensing based approach to determine forest fire cycle: case study of the Yenisei Ridge dark taiga

Abstract

The role of fire disturbances in boreal regions is of great importance for the global carbon cycle, but for the boreal forests characterized by a low fire frequency (i.e. the dark taiga of Siberia) it is often difficult to identify the fire cycle and the fire disturbance rate. A new methodological approach, based on remote sensing techniques and homogeneous stochastic process properties, has been developed for quantifying the forest-fire cycle. In the following study we selected a forest area, the Yenisei Ridge dark taiga, in central Siberia where field and satellite imagery data were collected, and where this new methodology was applied. For the central Siberian dark taiga, the fire cycle was estimate to be 520 yr.