Estimating carbon storage and release in a fire-disturbed boreal forest using multi-sensor satellite data

Fire is a major disturbance regime for boreal forest and is also a major factor in the exchange of carbon between biotic components and the atmosphere. The occurrence of fire in boreal forests is extensive, and individual fire events typically cover large areas, with fires between 1000 and >1000000 ha in size accounting for >98% of all area burned. The effects of these large fire events can easily be discriminated on a variety of satellite remote sensing system. Studies are currently underway to compare field data of surface characteristics in a fire-disturbed spruce forest in east-central Alaska to a variety of satellite data collected over this region. These studies have shown that remote sensing data collected in different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum can be used to estimate different surface characteristics related to the effects of the fire. The authors discuss how these satellite-derived surface parameters can be used to study patterns of carbon storage and release in fire-disturbed spruce forests. Three different aspects of the carbon cycle are presently being studied using multi-sensor satellite data: (1) the amount of carbon released during into the atmosphere via biomass burning during the fire event; (2) carbon flux rates after the fire due to aerobic (CO₂) and anaerobic (CH₄) decomposition; and (3) patterns of carbon storage in aboveground biomass during secondary succession. The authors illustrate how satellite-remote sensing data can be used to study these processes