Fire regime, climate and vegetation in the mountains of Córdoba, Argentina.

ARGAÑARAZ JUAN; GAVIER GREGORIO; ZAK MARCELO; BELLIS, L. M.

Fire Ecology

The Association for Fire Ecology (AFE)

Año: 2015 vol. 11 p. 55 - 73

1933-9747

Wildfires are a primary disturbance in the mountains of Córdoba, Argentina, with near 2 152 000 ha burned between 1993 and 2012. However, little is known about the spatial and temporal patterns of fires and their relationship with climate and vegetation. Such information is of great value for fire risk assessment and to develop strategies for fire management. Our main objective was to analyze the fire activity within these mountains, analyzing what weather and climate conditions determined fire activity; and what land covers were burning the most. We used a mid-high spatial resolution fire database and a land cover map derived from Landsat. Fire regimes were different among the different mountain ranges. The Sierras Chicas Mountains was the most affected by fires, with the largest number of fire events, amount of burned area, and fire frequency. Although large fires represented 3 % to 5 % of fire events, they accounted for 60 % to 86 % of total burned area in different mountain ranges. Mountains with lower elevation had a winter seasonality of fires while higher elevation mountains had winter-spring or spring fire seasonality. The number of fire events was positively correlated with preceding wetter periods, while the amount of burned area was mainly associated with midterm weather conditions. Fires burned mainly grasslands and shrublands, but the amount of burned forest was important too. Our results will be useful to determine when and under what circumstances fire risk is higher and also to identify where preventive efforts should be focused.