Abstract
Wildfires in permafrost areas, including smoldering fires (e.g., “zombie fires”), have increasingly become a concern in the Arctic and subarctic. Their detection is difficult and requires ground truthing. Local and Indigenous knowledge are becoming useful sources of information that could guide future research and wildfire management. This paper focuses on permafrost peatland fires in the Siberian subarctic taiga linked to local communities and their infrastructure. It presents the results of field studies in Evenki and old-settler communities of Tokma and Khanda in the Irkutsk region of Russia in conjunction with concurrent remote sensing data analysis. The study areas located in the discontinuous permafrost zone allow examination of the dynamics of wildfires in permafrost peatlands and adjacent forested areas. Interviews revealed an unusual prevalence and witness-observed characteristics of smoldering peatland fires over permafrost, such as longer than expected fire risk periods, impacts on community infrastructure, changes in migration of wild animals, and an increasing number of smoldering wildfires including overwintering “zombie fires” in the last five years. The analysis of concurrent satellite remote sensing data confirmed observations from communities, but demonstrated a limited capacity of satellite imagery to accurately capture changing wildfire activity in permafrost peatlands, which may have significant implications for global climate.
Highlights
IntroductionFires in permafrost underlying areas, including smoldering, peat, and overwintering fires (so-called “zombie fires”), are increasingly becoming a point of concern in the Arctic and subarctic [1,2,3] amid elevated fire activity in the recent decade [4,5]
With climate change, fires in permafrost underlying areas, including smoldering, peat, and overwintering fires, are increasingly becoming a point of concern in the Arctic and subarctic [1,2,3] amid elevated fire activity in the recent decade [4,5]
This information provides an increasingly accurate and elaborate understanding of wildfire activity and its impacts compared to regional-level assessments based exclusively on remote sensing or official reporting
Summary
Fires in permafrost underlying areas, including smoldering, peat, and overwintering fires (so-called “zombie fires”), are increasingly becoming a point of concern in the Arctic and subarctic [1,2,3] amid elevated fire activity in the recent decade [4,5]. Smoldering fires result in more changes to permafrost than rapid flaming fires [6]. Fires that burn in permafrost peatlands can occur at very low intensities that are difficult to detect by satellite [9]. Overwintering fires are small in size and are often missed by satellites, with most information about them known exclusively from witness accounts [3]. There is a knowledge gap on permafrost peatland fire basic characteristics, such as locations, conditions, and previous fire return intervals [1]
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