Forest Fire Case Study

Abstract:

Forest fire is a well-recognized threat to biodiversity and a significant cause of ecological degradation. Fires emit significant amounts of CO2 to the atmosphere. Studies have found that greenhouse gas emissions from forest fires strongly influence the climate change. In present study, the spatio-temporal patterns of forest fires were examined from 2004 to 2013 in Similipal Biosphere Reserve, Eastern Ghats. This study focuses on estimation of the carbon emissions from forest fires based on IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories. The total area affected under forest fire has been estimated as 860.9 km2 in 2004, 418 km2 in 2005, 902.5 km2 in 2006, 855.3 km2 in 2007 and 653.6 km2 in 2008, 1014.7 km2 in 2009, 594.9 km2

Forest fires represent an important source of atmospheric trace gases and aerosol particles. Fire influences global ecosystem patterns and processes, including vegetation distribution and structure, the carbon cycle, and climate. Fires have been observed from the geological scale from the origin of terrestrial life (Bowman et.al. 2009). Spread of fire has been increased in different vegetation types after human’s exposure. The atmospheric carbon level has begun after the domestic use of fire around 50,000 to 100,000 years (Bar-Yosef, 2002). In recent history due to industrialization the tropical forests with fire resistant species is being cleared due to conversion of forest type to agriculture (Mouillot & Field 2005). Increased vegetation fire surge releases high amount of carbon dioxide in atmosphere. These high levels of CO2 in atmosphere can be estimated and balanced by alternative conservation plans. In the present study the term ‘vegetation fire’ denotes to the open fires of various vegetation including savannah, forest, and agricultural deposits that are set by humans (Langmann et.al

A nation-wide sample study had estimated that about 1.45 Mha of forests are affected by fire during 1995 (FSI 1995). Forest fires in India are mostly anthropogenic; however the intensity of fire depends on climate, fuel type, wind, topography and demography. The observations in the past 20 years shows that the increasing intensity and spread of forest fires in Asia were largely related to rise in temperature and decline in precipitation in combination with change in land uses (IPCC 2007). The forest fire situation in India has been appraised by Joseph et al. (2009). There are evidences towards increased frequency of anthropogenic fires than in the past in Indian forests (Kodandapani 2013; Hari Krishna and Reddy, 2012). With respect to the area and biomass burning in India, there are no estimations observed in a particular forest type. Therefore the emissions were extracted out from literature and scattered out for the study area. For evaluating the impact of biomass burning, and also to represent it models of atmospheric transport and chemistry, accurate data on the emission of trace gases from biomass burning through forest fires are