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Large loss and rapid recovery of vegetation cover and aboveground biomass over forest areas in Australia during 2019–2020

Australia experienced multi-year drought and record high temperatures, and massive forest fires occurred across the southeast in 2019 and early 2020. In the fire-affected forest areas, understory and often tree canopies were burned, and in-situ observations in late 2020 reported rapid vegetation recovery, including grasses, shrubs, and tree canopies from burned-but-not-dead eucalyptus trees. Considering the strong fire resilience and resistance of eucalyptus trees and above-average rainfall in 2020, we assessed how much and how quickly vegetation structure and biomass changed from loss to post-fire and drought recovery in 2020 for all forest areas in Australia. Here, we analyzed space-borne optical, thermal, and microwave images to assess changes in the structure and function of vegetation using four vegetation indices (VIs), leaf area index (LAI), solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF), gross primary production (GPP), and aboveground biomass (AGB). We found that all eight variables show large losses in 2019, driven by fires and climate (drought and high temperature), but large gains in 2020, resulting from the high resilience of most trees to fire and rapid growth of understory vegetation under wet condition in 2020. In 2019, the forest area has an AGB loss of 0.20 Pg C, which is ~15% of the pre-fire AGB. Attribution analyses showed that both fire and climate (prior and co-occurring severe drought and record high temperatures) are responsible for the AGB loss in 2019, approximately 0.09 Pg C (fire) and 0.11 Pg C (climate), respectively. In 2020, the forest area has a total AGB gain of 0.26 Pg C, composed of 0.22 Pg C from fire-affected forest area and 0.04 Pg C from fire-unaffected forest area. Fire-adapted Eucalyptus forests and above-average annual precipitation in 2020 brought by a moderate La Niña drove the recovery of vegetation cover, productivity, and AGB. The results from this study shows the potential of multiple sensors for monitoring and assessing the impacts of fire and climate on the forest areas in Australia and their post-fire recovery.
- Southeast University China (People's Republic of)
- Oklahoma City University United States
- University of Maryland, College Park United States
- Département Sciences sociales, agriculture et alimentation, espace et environnement France
- California Institute of Technology United States
580, 550, Soil Science, Geology, Remote sensing, Fire, [SDU.ENVI] Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces, environment, Carbon, Forest recovery, Climate change, Forest, Computers in Earth Sciences, [SDU.ENVI]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces, environment
580, 550, Soil Science, Geology, Remote sensing, Fire, [SDU.ENVI] Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces, environment, Carbon, Forest recovery, Climate change, Forest, Computers in Earth Sciences, [SDU.ENVI]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces, environment
citations This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).53 popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.Top 10% influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).Top 10% impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.Top 1%
