Abstract
This study shows a simplified approach for calculating emissions associated with forest fires in Mexico, based on different satellite observation products: the biomass, burnt area, emission factors, and burning efficiency. Biomass loads were based on a Mexican biomass map, updated with the net primary productivity products. The burning efficiency was estimated from a Random Forest Regression (RFR) model, which considered the fuel, weather and topographical conditions. The burned areas were the downloaded Maryland University MCD64c6 product. The emission factors were obtained from well-known estimations, corrected by a dedicated US Forest Service and Mexican campaign. The uncertainty was estimated from an integrative method. Our method was applied to a four-year period, 2011–2014, in three Mexican ecoregions. The total burned in the study region was 12,898 km2 (about 4% of the area), producing 67.5 (±20) Tg of CO2. Discrepancies of the land cover maps were found to be the main cause of a low correlation between our estimations and the Global Emission Database (GFED). The emissions were clearly associated to precipitation patterns. They mainly affected dry and tropical forests (almost 50% of all emissions). Six priority areas were identified, where prevention or mitigation measures must be implemented.
Highlights
The greenhouse gas (GHG) effect is a natural process that helps to maintain the thermal balance for life on Earth
These are 3 of the 22 ecoregions recognized by the ecoregion map of Mexico [23], and were selected according to the following criteria: (1) representative area of a forest ecoregion; (2) located within political states reporting a high incidence of forest fires (CONAFOR); (3) ecoregion with active fires identified with the Early Warning Forest Fires System, operated by the National Commission for Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (CONABIO) [24]
The present study contributes a product of burned areas that identifies areas affected by fires in vegetation, irrespective of the forest fires registered in the statistics
Summary
The greenhouse gas (GHG) effect is a natural process that helps to maintain the thermal balance for life on Earth. Wildfires contribute between 24% and 35% of carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) and methane (CH4) emissions to the atmosphere, as well as a significant quantity of aerosols [5] For this reason, and because of its role in vegetation changes, fire disturbance has been designated an Essential Climate Variable (ECV) [5] by the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) to better understand Climate Change trends [6]. CO is not a GHG, but it generates ozone (O3) in the troposphere and has a deleterious effect on living organisms [7] These gases are the result of chemical reactions resulting from the combination of three components: vegetation, heat, and oxygen [8]. Their emissions vary spatially and temporally, depending on the fuel moisture conditions: the more moisture, the lower the gas emissions (owing to incomplete combustion) [9,10]
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