Fire Type Research Articles

Migration patterns and health risk assessment of polycyclic aromatic compounds in typical coal fire source.

The Wuda coal fire in Inner Mongolia, China, is a global catastrophic event. It emits a huge volume of organic pollutants, including polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs), which are widely concerning due to their physiological toxicity and environmental persistence. However, there is no systematic study on the enrichment and migration patterns of PACs emitted from coal fires. Here, we compared samples from coal fire sponges and surrounding soil, and analyzed 47 PACs using GC × GC-TOFMS. Data analysis showed that the average content of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (16PAHs) in the coal fire sponge was 15400.65ng/g, which is about 4.2 times higher than that in the surrounding soil. Meanwhile, 31 PACs were detected at levels far exceeding those of 16PAHs. The distribution pattern of PACs showed that coal fire sources are more likely to produce and store 16PAHs while surrounding soils are more likely to be enriched with PAH derivatives. The cancer risk assessment revealed a significant cancer risk in both the coal fires and the surrounding soil. The formation mechanism of oxygenated PAHs was also explored, and it was found that coal fires emit 16PAHs and alkylated PAHs, which oxidize to form oxygenated PAHs during migration to surrounding soils. The value of naphthaldehyde/alkylated naphthalene (< 2) can be referenced as characteristic markers of coal fire pollution. This provides a new perspective on the sources of PACs in the current environment.

Linking crown fire likelihood with post-fire spectral variability in Mediterranean fire-prone ecosystems

Background Fire behaviour assessments of past wildfire events have major implications for anticipating post-fire ecosystem responses and fuel treatments to mitigate extreme fire behaviour of subsequent wildfires. Aims This study evaluates for the first time the potential of remote sensing techniques to provide explicit estimates of fire type (surface fire, intermittent crown fire, and continuous crown fire) in Mediterranean ecosystems. Methods Random Forest classification was used to assess the capability of spectral indices and multiple endmember spectral mixture analysis (MESMA) image fractions (char, photosynthetic vegetation, non-photosynthetic vegetation) retrieved from Sentinel-2 data to predict fire type across four large wildfires Key results MESMA fraction images procured more accurate fire type estimates in broadleaf and conifer forests than spectral indices, without remarkable confusion among fire types. High crown fire likelihood in conifer and broadleaf forests was linked to a post-fire MESMA char fractional cover of about 0.8, providing a direct physical interpretation. Conclusions Intrinsic biophysical characteristics such as the fractional cover of char retrieved from sub-pixel techniques with physical basis are accurate to assess fire type given the direct physical interpretation. Implications MESMA may be leveraged by land managers to determine fire type across large areas, but further validation with field data is advised.

A refined cylinder fire model for thermal radiation calculation from localized fire to exposed horizontal surface

Fire is the most frequent hazard to buildings. The current design methods for predicting the temperatures of structures in fire are originally developed for the standard fire that assumes a uniform gas temperature field and are invalid for natural fires with high non-uniform gas temperature fields. Localized fire is a typical natural fire with high non-uniform gas temperature field, which is often considered in fire safety design. There are currently no validated simple general models for calculating the heat transfer from localized fire to exposed structures. To address the need of design method, this paper develops a refined cylinder fire model for calculating the incident radiant heat fluxes on horizontal structural members inside and outside the flame region of a localized fire. The model uses a cylinder, centered at the fire plume axis, to represent the localized fire. The height of the cylinder is not fixed, different to any other fire models. The temperatures in the cylinder are highly non-uniform in three dimensions and are determined based on the classic fire plume theory. For radiation calculation, the cylinder is evenly divided into several elements along the radius and height. Each element is assumed to be a homogenous, isotropic, and absorbing-emitting (participating) graybody. By careful consideration of the spatial gas temperature distribution, the radiation properties (emissivity and transmissivity) of the elementary graybody, and the configuration factor between the elementary graybody and the horizontal target surface, the model can get relatively accurate and conservative incident radiant heat flux. The relative deviations against both the experiment data and numerical results are within ± 30 %. The model introduces a new concept of calculating the heat fluxes from fire to structures, is a relatively simple general model (compared with the sophisticated computational fluid dynamics models), and is more precise and accurate than other simple ones. The model is recommended for use in performance-based fire safety design.

Exposure to Smoke From Wildfire, Prescribed, and Agricultural Burns Among At-Risk Populations Across Washington, Oregon, and California.

Wildfires, prescribed burns, and agricultural burns all impact ambient air quality across the Western U.S.; however, little is known about how communities across the region are differentially exposed to smoke from each of these fire types. To address this gap, we quantify smoke exposure stemming from wildfire, prescribed, and agricultural burns across Washington, Oregon, and California from 2014 to 2020 using a fire type-specific biomass burning emissions inventory and the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model. We examine fire type-specific PM2.5 concentration by race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and in relation to the Center for Disease Control's Social Vulnerability Index. Overall, population-weightedPM2.5 concentrations are greater from wildfires than from prescribed and from agricultural burns. While we found limited evidence of exposure disparities among sub-groups across the full study area, we did observe disproportionately higher exposures to wildfire-specific PM2.5 exposures among Native communities in all three states and, in California, higher agricultural burn-specific PM2.5 exposures among lower socioeconomic groups. We also identified, for all three states, areas of significant spatial clustering of smoke exposures from all fire types and increased social vulnerability. These results provide a first look at the differential contributions of smoke from wildfires, prescribed burns, and agricultural burns to PM2.5 exposures among demographic subgroups, which can be used to inform more tailored exposure reduction strategies across sources.

Performance of various water-based fire suppression systems in tunnels with longitudinal ventilation

Low pressure, medium pressure and high pressure water-based fire suppression systems were tested in a medium scale tunnel (scale 1:3). The primary objective was to investigate which of these systems are most effective in the suppression or control of different types of tunnel fires. The default low, medium and high pressure systems refer to full scale water flow rates of 10 mm/min, 6.8 mm/min and 3.7 mm/min, respectively. Some other water densities were also tested to investigate the effects, as well as different ventilation velocities and activation criteria. Several series of fire tests were conducted for different fire scenarios. The fire scenarios considered included idle wood pallet fires, loosely packed wood crib fires, loosely packed wood and plastic crib fires, and pool fires, with or without a top cover on the fuel load. Comparisons of the three default systems based on the three parameters: heat release rate, energy released and possibility of fire spread, show that the performance of the default low pressure system is usually the most effective based on the parameters studied. The default high pressure system usually yields results less effective in comparison to the default low pressure system. The performance of the default medium pressure system usually lies in between them. The high pressure system behaves very differently in comparison to the others, in terms of tunnel ventilation velocity, water density, operating pressure, and the presence of the top cover.

Wildfires affect mesocarnivores habitat use and mammalian predator-prey relationships in a Mediterranean ecosystem

Effects of fires on carnivores are still poorly understood, particularly in the fire-prone Mediterranean basin. For instance, whether the effects are mainly mediated by prey abundance (Prey Abundance Hypothesis, PAH), prey catchability (Prey Catchability Hypothesis, PCH) or habitat suitability is unclear. Our objective was to investigate the role of fire, mammalian prey abundance, habitat suitability and their interactions in shaping the use of space and time of two carnivores, i.e., the red fox Vulpes vulpes and the stone marten Martes foina. The study area was Monte Pisano (Italy), where 12 km2 of surface burned in 2018. In early summer 2021 a stratified random sampling design was implemented, with fire and forest type as main strata. Fifty sites were selected, and two infrared cameras were placed at each site. Camera data were used to develop single-species occupancy models for the two predators, whereas time overlap between theme and their prey was evaluated through the Mardia-Watson-Wheeler test. Fox occupancy decreased with increasing herbaceous cover, but only when “mouse and voles” abundance was medium to high, regardless of habitat type. Fox also had significant differences in temporal activity between burnt and unburnt areas, not coupled by a similar pattern for its prey. In contrast, stone marten occupancy mainly depended on canopy cover. The fox could have adapted its hunting strategy to features of the environment and prey abundance, somehow supporting both PCH and PAH. In time, this species could optimize its activity in burnt and unburnt areas according to the brightness of the night. Differences in activity in “mice and voles” were interpreted as anti-predatory responses to the fox. Lastly, the stone marten did not pursue its prey in open areas. In conclusion, carnivores’ habitat use and mammalian predator-prey relationships were overall influenced by fire and post-fire successions.

California Case Study of Wildfires and Prescribed Burns: PM2.5 Emissions, Concentrations, and Implications for Human Health.

Wildfires are a significant threat to human health, in part through degraded air quality. Prescribed burning can reduce wildfire severity but can also lead to an increase in air pollution. The complexities of fires and atmospheric processes lead to uncertainties when predicting the air quality impacts of fire and make it difficult to fully assess the costs and benefits of an expansion of prescribed fire. By modeling differences in emissions, surface conditions, and meteorology between wildfire and prescribed burns, we present a novel comparison of the air quality impacts of these fire types under specific scenarios. One wildfire and two prescribed burn scenarios were considered, with one prescribed burn scenario optimized for potential smoke exposure. We found that PM2.5 emissions were reduced by 52%, from 0.27 to 0.14 Tg, when fires burned under prescribed burn conditions, considerably reducing PM2.5 concentrations. Excess short-term mortality from PM2.5 exposure was 40 deaths for fires under wildfire conditions and 39 and 15 deaths for fires under the default and optimized prescribed burn scenarios, respectively. Our findings suggest prescribed burns, particularly when planned during conditions that minimize smoke exposure, could be a net benefit for the impacts of wildfires on air quality and health.

Predicting forest fire danger using fuel characteristics in Berbak Sembilang National Park

Analyzing the fuel characteristics of a forest is essential when creating fire danger rating system (FDRS) and understanding how forest fires behave. In this study, the researchers predicted the intensity of forest fires by examining the amount of fuel present Berbak and Sembilang Natinal Park between November 2020 and December 2021. The fuel load measurement was carried out on surface fuel in the burned peatland area by modifying the line-intersect method (triangular plot - Van Wanger 1982) and the method developed during the Kalimantan Forest Climate Project (KFCP). We assessed the possibility of forest fires occurring, based on the fuel conditions. Variations were found in the fuel quantity and composition on the forest’s surface layer across different regions. Consequently, the intensity and type of forest fires changed accordingly. The Berbak Sembilang National Park area proved more intense surface fires. These results underscore the importance of understanding regional fuel characteristics and analyzing the predicted intensity and type of forest fires to take timely preventive measures against early fire occurrences.

Late Pleistocene emergence of an anthropogenic fire regime in Australia’s tropical savannahs

At the time of European arrival on the Australian continent, sophisticated Indigenous societies practiced land management across Australia’s extensive tropical savannahs. Fire was one of the main tools people used to manipulate fuel loads and connectivity to reduce uncontrolled wildfire, maintain vegetation structure and enhance biodiversity. When this alteration of a ‘natural’ fire regime to a human-dominated fire regime occurred is not known. Here we assessed fire incidence and intensity over the past 150,000 years through a continuous lacustrine record by comparing the accumulation rates of micro-charcoal and stable polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon that form during the combustion of vegetation. We also compared grass (mainly C4) pollen as a percentage of total dryland pollen with the carbon isotope composition of the stable polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon. We established with high statistical certainty that a change in fire regime occurred at least 11,000 years ago from less-frequent, more-intense fires to more-frequent, less-intense fires. This change marked the overprinting of a largely natural fire regime by one at least modulated by Indigenous management. Our findings demonstrate that human fire use has modified fire regimes throughout the Holocene and also show how people have managed the potential for the type of high-intensity fires that are likely to increase in the future.

Classification in Early Fire Detection Using Multi-Sensor Nodes-A Transfer Learning Approach.

Effective early fire detection is crucial for preventing damage to people and buildings, especially in fire-prone historic structures. However, due to the infrequent occurrence of fire events throughout a building's lifespan, real-world data for training models are often sparse. In this study, we applied feature representation transfer and instance transfer in the context of early fire detection using multi-sensor nodes. The goal was to investigate whether training data from a small-scale setup (source domain) can be used to identify various incipient fire scenarios in their early stages within a full-scale test room (target domain). In a first step, we employed Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) to create a new feature space solely based on the source domain data and predicted four different fire types (smoldering wood, smoldering cotton, smoldering cable and candle fire) in the target domain with a classification rate up to 69% and a Cohen's Kappa of 0.58. Notably, lower classification performance was observed for sensor node positions close to the wall in the full-scale test room. In a second experiment, we applied the TrAdaBoost algorithm as a common instance transfer technique to adapt the model to the target domain, assuming that sparse information from the target domain is available. Boosting the data from 1% to 30% was utilized for individual sensor node positions in the target domain to adapt the model to the target domain. We found that additional boosting improved the classification performance (average classification rate of 73% and an average Cohen's Kappa of 0.63). However, it was noted that excessively boosting the data could lead to overfitting to a specific sensor node position in the target domain, resulting in a reduction in the overall classification performance.

Fire governance research in the tropics: A configurative review and outline of a research agenda

Fire is a highly relevant governance challenge in the tropics: altered fire regimes, among other phenomena, threaten the persistence of various ecosystems. Fire is also widely used by smallholders. Yet, wildfires can put people's livelihoods in danger through direct damages and by impoverishing ecosystem services. Conventional approaches have sought to suppress any type of fire in the landscape. However, since the late twentieth century, researchers and practitioners have recognized the benefits of strategic fire use and, in some cases, of local fire use traditions. In many tropical areas, the coexistence and interaction of the conventional (‘suppression‐only’) approach, integrated approaches, and communities’ traditional ways of using fire, create a complex network of actors with different interests and outlooks. The ways these actors make decisions and interact can be summed up under the notion of fire governance. There is a growing body of literature dealing with this kind of situations, although they do not always mention the term governance. This paper thematically analyses 38 studies in this field, showing that research has been scattered and often addresses the issue partially, leaving out key aspects of environmental governance. Based on this analysis, the paper proposes a more connected and holistic research agenda.

Влагопроводность ядровой древесины сосны, поврежденной сильным низовым и беглым верховым пожаром

The forest fire has an effect on the tree trunk. Of the total number of fires in the forest-steppe zone of Russia, strong grass-roots fires prevail. As a result of this type of fire, the undergrowth burns out, which contributes to the most prolonged exposure to high temperature on the lumpy, economically valuable part of the trunk. The effect of high temperature affects the structure of the anatomical elements of wood, its integrity is violated. In the standing timber of the Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) destructive processes occur after fire damage, which have a significant effect on its physico-mechanical properties and are accompanied by intensive tar formation. One of the primary processes in wood processing technology is its dehydration, as a result of which wood is transformed from a natural material into a technological raw material. Therefore, the application of existing technological drying modes to wood damaged by fire is impractical. It is impossible to carry out the processes of dehydration or humidification of wood without information about the value of its moisture conductivity. The moisture conductivity of wood is determined by the moisture conductivity coefficient. The value of the moisture conductivity coefficient of samples of fire-damaged and undamaged P. sylvestris heartwood&#x0D; extracted from the stemwood was determined by the method of stationary moisture flow in the radial and tangential directions. In comparison with the intact Scots pine wood, wood damaged by fire has an inverse dependence of the intensity of the moisture current – in the tangential direction it is higher than in the radial direction. There is a general decrease in the moisture conductivity coefficient of pine wood: in the radial direction – by 40.2 ± 1.58% (p &lt; 0.05), in the tangential direction – by 14.5 ± 0.92% (p &lt; 0.05) compared with intact wood. Patterns of changes in the value of the heartwood coefficient of moisture conductivity in standing pine, damaged by fire, will allow to adjust the existing drying modes and improve the quality of the dried wood and the efficiency of the softwood kiln drying technology.

Effects of herbivory, fire, and vegetation type on soil compaction and aggregate stability in a semi-arid savanna

AbstractVegetation type is an important component of savannas contributing to changes in soil health. In savanna landscapes, the tree-grass balance is primarily governed by water, nutrients, fire, herbivory, and their interactions. Here we investigated the long-term effect of herbivores, fire, and vegetation type, and their interactions on selected physical properties (bulk density, penetration resistance, aggregate size fractions, and mean weight diameter (MWD)) of water stable aggregates within the crest and foot-slope of 20-year-old Nkuhlu exclosures located in Kruger National Park, South Africa. Burning, herbivory, and open grassland zones had a significant main and interactive ecological impact on all the soil physical properties under investigation. The interactions between fire, herbivores, and vegetation type within the crest and foot-slope of the Nkuhlu exclosure had a significant impact on soil bulk density, with areas under tree canopies having lower bulk density than open grassland zones in all the exclosures. In all the sampling sites, both burnt and unburnt plots of the full exclosure had lower penetration resistance than the control site and partial exclosure. Moreover, unburnt plots and canopy cover increased aggregate size distribution and mean weight diameter of water stable aggregates. Since fire and herbivory are closely linked and bring about changes in soil physical properties, the understanding of the dynamics of fire, herbivory, vegetation, and their interactions can then be used to help make effective management decisions that incorporate concerns of biodiversity in savanna ecosystems.

Health Impacts of Future Prescribed Fire Smoke: Considerations From an Exposure Scenario in California

AbstractIn response to increasing wildfire risks, California plans to expand the use of prescribed fire. We characterized the anticipated change in health impacts from exposure to smoke under a future fire‐management scenario relative to a historical period (2008–2016). Using dispersion models, we estimated daily fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions from hypothetical future prescribed fires on 500,000‐acres classified as high priority. To evaluate health impacts, we calculated excess daily cardiorespiratory emergency department visit rates attributed to all‐source PM2.5, distinguishing the portion of the burden attributed to prescribed fire. The total burden was differentiated by fire type and by smoke strata‐specific days to calculate strata‐specific burden rates, which were then applied to estimate the burden in the future scenario. This analysis suggests that the exposure to prescribed fire smoke, measured as the number of persons exposed per year, would be 15 times greater in the future. However, these exposures were associated with lower concentrations compared to the historical period. The increased number of exposure days led to an overall increase in the future health burden. Specifically, the northern, central, and southern regions experienced the largest burden increase. This study introduces an approach that integrates spatiotemporal exposure differences, baseline morbidity, and population size to assess the impacts of prescribed fire under a future scenario. The findings highlight the need to consider both the level and frequency of exposure to guide strategies to safeguard public health as well as aid forest management agencies in making informed decisions to protect communities while mitigating wildfire risks.

Are fire intensity and burn severity associated? Advancing our understanding of FRP and NBR metrics from Himawari-8/9 and Sentinel-2

Burn severity has been widely studied. Typical approaches use spectral differencing indices from remotely sensed data to extrapolate in-situ severity assessments. Next generation geostationary data offer near-continuous fire behaviour information, which has been used for fire detection and monitoring but remains underutilized for fire impact estimation. Here, we explore the association between remotely sensed fire intensity metrics and spectral differencing severity indices to understand whether and where they describe similar wildfire effects. The commonly used Differenced Normalised Burn Ratio (dNBR) severity index was calculated for Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI − 2 km) and Sentinel-2 (20 m) data and compared to different Fire Radiative Power (FRP) metrics derived from fire hotspot detections from AHI data across Australia. The comparison was implemented through different stratifications based on biogeographical region, land cover, fire type, and percentage of AHI pixel burned (fire fractional cover). The results indicate that FRP and dNBR metrics do not correlate in most scenarios, noting correlations being marginally stronger for hotter fires. However, correlations become significantly stronger when data are grouped using fire type information and fire fractional cover, with correlations peaking (R = 0.75) for large fires that burned 41–60 % of an AHI pixel. In conclusion, remotely sensed fire intensity and severity proxies capture different aspects of wildfire impact, that only correlate with each other after using auxiliary data. Spectral differencing severity metrics have been used extensively during the past decades, however high-frequency fire intensity estimations have the potential to augment the existing information and reveal new ways of characterizing wildfire impact over large areas.

Generation of Architectural and Other Safety Measures Against Crises and Killings at Residential Environments in Plateau State of Nigeria

Over the years there have been series of crisis in Plateau State of Nigeria and they have led to massive killings and destruction of valuable properties; this is a very serious problem. Hence, it became necessary to conduct a research work with the aim of overviewing the cases of crises and killings at residential environments in Plateau State, in order to generate architectural and other safety measures to reduce their future occurrences in Nigeria. The research focused on desktop study as the instrument for data collection; reviewed different newspapers in Nigeria with available crisis and killing cases in Plateau State, in order to get relevant information to the research. Thus, table was used for the presentation and analysis of the research data, so as to generate results and the results were checked by using contents analysis technique, in order to validate them. Among the architectural research findings is: 1,290 houses were burnt during December, 2023 crisis in Bokkos Local Government Area of Plateau State and some other research findings are: the security agencies knew that an attack was coming before the 2023 Christmas eve massacre; the security forces know the attackers, and they even know their hideouts for two decades. Among the recommended architectural safety measures to reduce future crises and killings is: the design of the members of roof, door, window, ceiling and any other part of building that can easily burn with the use of wood should be fire retardant type, in order to reduce death, massive destruction of houses and valuable properties in times of fire attack from the terrorists. Some other recommended safety measures are: there should be advanced training of security agencies on immediate defensive responses against the terrorists been rumored of their coming to the state; urgent investigations must be made on the security forces that knew the attackers and their hideouts for two decades without revealing the information, so that the defaulted members of those security forces can receive a very severe/appropriate punishment, in order to stop this kind of bad service in Nigeria.

Assessment of carbon emissions due to landscape fires in Ukraine during war in 2022

The russian military aggression and the related socio-economic and environmental consequences have significantly affected the climate and production of ecosystem services through damage to forests, ecosystems, landscape fires and emissions of gases into the atmosphere. The study aims to estimate carbon dioxide emissions due to landscape fires in Ukraine during the year 2022. The OroraTech wildfire monitoring technology was used to detect fires, while perimeters of burned areas were delineated with Sentinel 2 time series. The Copernicus Dynamic Land Cover map was used to extract burned land covers. Emissions were calculated based on the intensity of fires (dNBR) with the share of burned biomass in different types of land cover. Biomass models were selected considering the dominant tree species within a specific region and the species structure of the sown areas of croplands. The volume of biomass losses was estimated as a result of fires of different severities. It was estimated that during in 2022, landscape fires burned 749.5 thousand hectares thereof: croplands – 419.1 thousand hectares; other natural vegetation – 273.8 thousand hectares; conifer forests – 31.1 thousand hectares; other forests – 25.5 thousand hectares. The impact of the war on landscape fires is confirmed by the large proportion of fires in the 60-kilometre buffer zone along the frontline – 68.9% of the total area of fire. Among all fires, 42.5% of fires occurred in the occupied territory. Total CO2 emissions from all types of landscape fires reached 5.20 million tons and other greenhouse gases – 0.28 million tons. It is the first detailed mapping of landscape fires with an analysis of each polygon for the whole territory of Ukraine. The results provide important information for assessing the loss of ecosystem services and estimating carbon dioxide emissions as well as for confirming the impact of hostilities on landscape fires

Impact of Large-Scale Fire and Habitat Type on Ant Nest Density and Species Abundance in Biebrza National Park, Poland

Fire can have negative effects on the ant community by reducing species abundance through direct mortality, changes in resource availability, or foraging activity. Fire can also have positive effects, especially for opportunistic species preferring open or disturbed habitats. We assessed the direct effects of a large-scale fire on ant communities in open habitats (grassland and Carex) and moist forested peatland (birch and alder) sites in Biebrza National Park, testing three hypotheses: (i) the large-scale fire had more significant effects on ant nest density in forests than in open habitats, (ii) the post-fire ant diversity changes within sites are stronger in forests than open habitats, and (iii) ant species preferring disturbed habitats are favoured by the fire event. The fire had negative effects on ant nest density only in the Carex and grassland sites but not in the birch and alder sites, suggesting that fire had a stronger impact in open habitats than in forests. Temporal post-fire ant diversity changes within sites were stronger in forests than in open habitats. We observed higher beta diversity changes between the first and second year of the study in the burned forest sites due to colonisation, indicating a greater fire impact on species community composition followed by a higher recolonisation rate. Ant species preferring disturbed habitats were favoured by the fire. The seed-eating ant species Tetramorium caespitum, a thermophilous and opportunistic species, dominated the burned grassland site. This contrasts with other species, e.g., Lasius alienus, for which nest density decreased after fire, underlining the importance of food resource availability as a major driver of community changes after fire. Our study also underlines the importance of periodic biodiversity monitoring in conservation areas for assessing the recovery of the original status after disturbances and revealing possible habitat changes endangering the survival of local biotic communities.

Impacts of forest fire frequency on structure and composition of tropical moist deciduous forest communities of Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, Central India

Forest fire is one of the prominent factors especially in tropical seasonal forests that have a variety of consequences on ecosystem composition, structure and function depending upon the type of fire, fire intensity, and fire frequency. Forest fire incidences have been increasing in the last few decades especially in tropical moist forests, raising the concerns for forest restoration and management since the inhabiting plants in these forest communities largely lack adaptive strategies. The present study was carried out in tropical moist deciduous forests to (A) understand the patterns of forest fire frequency by delineating the fire affected areas and (B) evaluate the impacts of forest fire frequency on species composition, diversity and regeneration of a moist deciduous forest of Central India. A fire frequency map was prepared using Landsat satellite images from 2005 to 2021 for the study purpose. Vegetation data were collected from field surveys for each fire frequency class separately. Results of the present study showed that 25.12 % area was affected by low frequent fires, 2.92 % by moderate frequent fires and 0.099 % by high frequent fires, whereas 71.85 % area remained unaffected by fire. The diversity of the tree layer was highest in the low fire frequency class whereas, for the sapling layer, it was highest in unburned areas. Overall, the negative impact of fire frequency on species diversity was observed for the tree and sapling layers. Favorable effects of fire on young current year recruitments were observed as a result of the removal of seed dormancy. Results indicate that moderate fire frequency in moist deciduous forests helps to increase tree density. Contrary to this, unburned areas are suitable for species diversity of seedlings and saplings which consequently decides the composition of mature vegetation. Overall, a negative impact of fire frequency on density was observed for the sapling and seedling layers. Our study concludes that higher fire frequency is detrimental to both the density and diversity of tree, sapling and seedling layers, particularly in tropical moist deciduous forest communities of Central India. It is expected that fire incidences are likely to increase with the increasing temperatures as a result of climate change. In this context, the present study would be highly valuable for forest policy development as information on the impact of fire in tropical moist forests is lacking especially from Central Indian region.

Fires and fire risk perception predictors on Finnish farms

ABSTRACT The physical and operational farm environment has become more complex, challenging risk management. This study aimed to identify the number and typical features of farm fires and the factors connected to farmers’ assessments of fire risk. The data comprised a subset extracted from the national accident database of the Finnish rescue services from 2000 to 2021 (3,989 farm fire alarm calls) and farm survey data collected in the spring of 2021 (506 valid responses). The descriptive analysis of the fire incident data showed that the most typical fire sites on farms were dairy cattle buildings, grain dryers, and heating plants. Most farmers (83.4%) assessed the probability of fire as intermediate or high. The Bayesian machine learning approach used to analyse the survey data suggested the control of malfunctions, failures of machinery and equipment, and educational efforts were key elements in fire risk management.