Estimated Carbon Emission From Forest Fire In Daxing'an Mountain

Fire is a main disturbance factor in most forest ecosystems. Forest fires especially huge fires often destroy forest ecosystems and emit a great deal of green-house gases. Forest fires have an influence on global climate change and environment. Research on carbon emissions caused by forest fires will enhance our understanding of the impact of the global carbon cycle and improve forest fire management strategy.The paper made a fuel map for Daxing'an region bases on the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) data and vegetation distribution map by using a combining method of supervised and unsupervised classification. Burned areas in Daxing'anling from 2005 to 2007 was estimated through comparing NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index) changes before and after the fire. And the burned areas were classified into three ratings in fire intensity. The paper estimated carbon emissions and greenhouse gases emissions from fires in Daxing'anling during 2005-2007 on the base of wild investigation for fuel consumption in different fuel types.The total burned area was 436,512.5 hm2 in Daxing'an mountain from 2005 to 2007 based on the remote sensing data. The total burned areas of severe, moderate and low intensity were 79,159.4, 150,159.2 and 207,178.4 hm2.According to the burned area map and fire intensity classification for Daxing'an mountain, the paper analyzed the consumed fuel loadings of different fuel types. The fires consumed 3.9×106 T fuel totally in study period, in which light , moderate and severe fire consumed fuel loadings 1.02×106 , 1.44×106 and 1.45×106 T respectively. Mixed conifer forest fire consumed most fuel loadings 1.83×106 T. Larch forest ,grass and broad-leaved forest consumed fuel 0.75×106 , 0.72×106 and 0.6×106 T.The total carbon emission in Daxing'an region from 2005 to 2007 was 1.76×106 T, in which 0.34×106, 0.83×106 , 0.27×106 and 0.32×106 T carbons caused by fires in larch forest, conifer and broadleaves mixed forest, broad-leaved forest and grassland respectively. There were 0.65×106, 0.64×106and 0.46×106 T carbon emission from severe fire ,moderate and light fire respectively. Greenhouse gases emissions were calculated according to the emission factors and carbon emissions. It indicated that there were CO2 emission 5.62×106 T ,CO 0.21×106 T ,the other greenhouse gases emissions were CH4 4,929,NMHC 3,971,NOX 3,699.1 and NH3 1,585 T.