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How does landscape change after fire? Assessing the global patterns and influential factors
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  • Shuyao Wu,
  • Delong Li,
  • Laibao Liu,
  • Jiashu Shen,
  • Kaidi Liu,
  • Wentao Zhang,
  • Weiyang Zhao,
  • Linbo Zhang
Shuyao Wu
Shandong University

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Delong Li
Southern University of Science and Technology
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Laibao Liu
ETH zurich
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Jiashu Shen
Peking University
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Kaidi Liu
Shandong University
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Wentao Zhang
Shandong University
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Weiyang Zhao
Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences
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Linbo Zhang
Shandong University
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Abstract

Fire, as a strong disturbance type, can exert significant impacts on biosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, cryosphere, atmosphere and human society. It can inherently trigger both critical transitions in ecosystems and dramatic changes in landscapes, which can be detected as alternations in land cover types. However, the general changing patterns and possible influential factors of post-fire landscape change remain largely unclear on a global scale. Obtaining such knowledge is of great value in advancing the understanding of fire ecology and promoting sustainable fire management. Here, we combined the satellite observations of long-term land cover and burned areas to assess the global post-fire landscape change patterns from 2005 to 2015. The results showed that the identified areas with post-fire landscape change accounted for approximately 0.36–0.74% of the annual global burned areas during the study period and were most common in countries such as Brazil, Argentina, and the D.R. Congo. The most common landscape change types were “forest-to-agriculture” (31.93%), “forest-to-shrubland” (26.23%) and “agriculture-to-forest” (18.74%) in 2005, 2010 and 2015, respectively. In addition, the conversion between agriculture and forest as well as the shrubland and forest after fire were found to be bidirectional. After assessing 14 fire-related climatic, topographic, ecological and socioeconomic factors that could potentially influence the post-fire landscape change occurrence probability, burned area size and vegetation cover diversity were identified as the two strongest predictors, followed by aspect, fire intensity and slope. Our results provide a global overview of post-fire landscape change patterns and offer guidance for making sustainable fire management policies.