RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 Evaluation of fire severity in fire prone-ecosystems of Spain under two different environmental conditions
A1 Garcia-Llamas, Paula
A1 Suarez-Seoane, Susana
A1 Fernández-Manso, Alfonso
A1 Quintano, Carmen
A1 Calvo, Leonor
AB Severe fires associated to climate change and land cover changes are becoming more frequent in MediterraneanEurope. The influence of environmental drivers on fire severity, especially under different environmental conditionsis still not fully understood. In this study we aim to determine the main environmental variables that controlfire severity in large fires (>500 ha) occurring in fire-prone ecosystems under two different environmental conditionsfollowing a transition (Mediterranean-Oceanic)-Mediterranean climatic gradient within the Iberian Peninsula,and to provide management recommendations to mitigate fire damage. We estimated fire severity as thedifferenced Normalized Burn Ratio, through images obtained from Landsat 8 OLI. We also examined the relativeinfluence of pre-fire vegetation structure (vegetation composition and configuration), pre-fire weather conditions,fire history and topography on fire severity using Random Forest machine learning algorithms. The results indicatedthat the severity of fires occurring along the transition (Mediterranean-Oceanic)-Mediterranean climaticgradient was primarily controlled by pre-fire vegetation composition. Nevertheless, the effect of vegetation compositionwas strongly dependent on interactions with fire recurrence and pre-fire vegetation structural configuration.The relationship between fire severity, weather and topographic predictors was not consistent among firesoccurring in the Mediterranean-Oceanic transition and Mediterranean sites. In the Mediterranean-Oceanic transitionsite, fire severity was determined by weather conditions (i.e., summer cumulative rainfall), rather than beingassociated to topography, suggesting that the control exerted by topography may be overwhelmed by weathercontrols. Conversely, results showed that topography only had a major effect on fire severity in the Mediterraneansite. The results of this study highlight the need to prioritise fuel treatments aiming at breaking fuel continuityand reducing fuel loads as an effective management strategy to mitigate fire damage in areas of high fire recur
PB Elsevier
YR 2020
FD 2020
LK https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/67789
UL https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/67789
LA spa
NO Journal of Environment Management, Octubre 2020, 271, 110706
DS UVaDOC
RD 07-ago-2024