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Wildfires are common in boreal forests around the globe and strongly influence ecosystem processes. However, North American forests support more high-intensity crown fires than Eurasia, where lower-intensity surface fires are common. These two types of fire can result in different net effects on climate as a consequence of their contrasting impacts on terrestrial albedo and carbon stocks. Here we use remote-sensing imagery, climate reanalysis data and forest inventories to evaluate differences in boreal fire dynamics between North America and Eurasia and their key drivers. Eurasian fires were less intense, destroyed less live vegetation, killed fewer trees and generated a smaller negative shortwave forcing. As fire...
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Severity of burning can influence multiple aspects of forest composition, carbon cycling, and climate forcing. We quantified how burn severity affected vegetation recovery and albedo change during early succession in Canadian boreal regions by combining satellite observations from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and the Canadian Large Fire Database. We used the MODIS-derived difference Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) and initial changes in spring albedo as measures of burn severity. We found that the most severe burns had the greatest reduction in summer MODIS Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) in the first year after fire, indicating greater loss of vegetation cover. By 58 years after fire,...
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Severity of burning can influence multiple aspects of forest composition, carbon cycling, and climate forcing. We quantified how burn severity affected vegetation recovery and albedo change during early succession in Canadian boreal regions by combining satellite observations from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and the Canadian Large Fire Database. We used the MODIS-derived difference Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) and initial changes in spring albedo as measures of burn severity. We found that the most severe burns had the greatest reduction in summer MODIS Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) in the first year after fire, indicating greater loss of vegetation cover. By 58 years after fire,...
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Wildfires are common in boreal forests around the globe and strongly influence ecosystem processes. However, North American forests support more high-intensity crown fires than Eurasia, where lower-intensity surface fires are common. These two types of fire can result in different net effects on climate as a consequence of their contrasting impacts on terrestrial albedo and carbon stocks. Here we use remote-sensing imagery, climate reanalysis data and forest inventories to evaluate differences in boreal fire dynamics between North America and Eurasia and their key drivers. Eurasian fires were less intense, destroyed less live vegetation, killed fewer trees and generated a smaller negative shortwave forcing. As fire...
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