The importance of antecedent vegetation and drought conditions as global drivers of burnt area

Kuhn-Régnier, Alexander; Voulgarakis, Apostolos; Nowack, Peer; Forkel, Matthias; Prentice, I. Colin; Harrison, Sandy P.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-3861-2021

Articles | Volume 18, issue 12

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-3861-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

The role of fire in the Earth system: understanding interactions...

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-3861-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 18, issue 12

Research article

|

29 Jun 2021

Research article |

| 29 Jun 2021

The importance of antecedent vegetation and drought conditions as global drivers of burnt area

Alexander Kuhn-Régnier, Apostolos Voulgarakis, Peer Nowack, Matthias Forkel, I. Colin Prentice, and Sandy P. Harrison

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-3861-2021-supplement

Model code and software

empirical-fire-modelling Alexander Kuhn-Regnier https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4778777

ALEPython Alexander Kuhn-Regnier, Maxime Jumelle, and Sanjif Rajaratnam https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4739201

wildfires Alexander Kuhn-Regnier https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4778770

era5analysis Alexander Kuhn-Regnier https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4173493

Download

Article (3791 KB)
Full-text XML

Short summary

Along with current climate, vegetation, and human influences, long-term accumulation of biomass affects fires. Here, we find that including the influence of antecedent vegetation and moisture improves our ability to predict global burnt area. Additionally, the length of the preceding period which needs to be considered for accurate predictions varies across regions.