Investigating the effect of fire dynamics on aboveground carbon storage in the Bateke landscape, Republic of Congo
Abstract
It is estimated that 68% of Africa's surface area burns every year (Roy et al. 2008), being the savanna biome the most continuously affected by burning with strong environmental and social impacts (Romero-Ruiz et al., 2010). Most fires in Africa are anthropogenic and occur during the Late Dry Season, but their dynamics and effects remain understudied. Sankaran et al. (2005) suggested that if disturbances by fire, browsers and humans were absent, then large areas of Africa would become forests. The main objective of this research is to understand the woody cover, productivity, carbon storage and fire regime of the complex forest/savanna system of the Bateke Plateau. The Bateke Plateau is a landscape composed of frequently burned grassland savanna surrounded by tropical forest, situated in the centre of the Republic of Congo. This study combines two approaches: firstly experimental, with long term field experiments where the fire regime is manipulated, and then observational, using remote sensing to study the past history of fire regime in the region. Field experiments suggest that late dry season fires are more intense and have higher mortality rates. We also investigated aboveground biomass, fire occurrence and intensity, using Landsat, ALOS PALSAR and the fire products of MODIS. We found that most savanna areas burnt at least once every 4 years, with more frequent fires occurring in the late dry season and around roads and settlements. This two approaches will be then combined to create a novel model of vegetation-fire-climate interactions in order to predict the vegetation response to different future scenarios. The results will be used to promote better management of this area to enhance carbon storage, as well as increase our understanding of vegetation dynamics in this understudied ecosystem and help orient policy and conservation.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AGUFMGC51E1222N
- Keywords:
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- 0315 Biosphere/atmosphere interactions;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTUREDE: 3390 Wildland fire model;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSESDE: 1615 Biogeochemical cycles;
- processes;
- and modeling;
- GLOBAL CHANGEDE: 1640 Remote sensing;
- GLOBAL CHANGE