TY - JOUR
T1 - ENSO modulates wildfire activity in China
AU - Fang, Keyan
AU - Yao, Qichao
AU - Guo, Zhengtang
AU - Zheng, Ben
AU - Du, Jianhua
AU - Qi, Fangzhong
AU - Yan, Ping
AU - Li, Jie
AU - Ou, Tinghai
AU - Liu, Jane
AU - He, Maosheng
AU - Trouet, Valerie
N1 - Funding Information:
We acknowledge the great efforts from collaborators in forestry departments who have monitored and checked wildfires. This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41888101, 41822101, and 41971022), Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB26020000), the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs of China (GS20190157002), fellowship for the National Youth Talent Support Program of China (Ten Thousand People Plan). Support from the Swedish Formas (Future Research Leaders) project is also acknowledged.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).
PY - 2021/12/1
Y1 - 2021/12/1
N2 - China is a key region for understanding fire activity and the drivers of its variability under strict fire suppression policies. Here, we present a detailed fire occurrence dataset for China, the Wildfire Atlas of China (WFAC; 2005–2018), based on continuous monitoring from multiple satellites and calibrated against field observations. We find that wildfires across China mostly occur in the winter season from January to April and those fire occurrences generally show a decreasing trend after reaching a peak in 2007. Most wildfires (84%) occur in subtropical China, with two distinct clusters in its southwestern and southeastern parts. In southeastern China, wildfires are mainly promoted by low precipitation and high diurnal temperature ranges, the combination of which dries out plant tissue and fuel. In southwestern China, wildfires are mainly promoted by warm conditions that enhance evaporation from litter and dormant plant tissues. We further find a fire occurrence dipole between southwestern and southeastern China that is modulated by the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO).
AB - China is a key region for understanding fire activity and the drivers of its variability under strict fire suppression policies. Here, we present a detailed fire occurrence dataset for China, the Wildfire Atlas of China (WFAC; 2005–2018), based on continuous monitoring from multiple satellites and calibrated against field observations. We find that wildfires across China mostly occur in the winter season from January to April and those fire occurrences generally show a decreasing trend after reaching a peak in 2007. Most wildfires (84%) occur in subtropical China, with two distinct clusters in its southwestern and southeastern parts. In southeastern China, wildfires are mainly promoted by low precipitation and high diurnal temperature ranges, the combination of which dries out plant tissue and fuel. In southwestern China, wildfires are mainly promoted by warm conditions that enhance evaporation from litter and dormant plant tissues. We further find a fire occurrence dipole between southwestern and southeastern China that is modulated by the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO).
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U2 - 10.1038/s41467-021-21988-6
DO - 10.1038/s41467-021-21988-6
M3 - Article
C2 - 33741924
AN - SCOPUS:85102871602
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 12
JO - Nature communications
JF - Nature communications
IS - 1
M1 - 1764
ER -