FOREST FIRE AND CHANGING CLIMATE

Forest fire in China

China is a country with serious forest fires, large burnt forest areas and tremendous fire losses. Forest fires have been long frequenting overall China and from 1950 to 2000, recurrent disturbance events considered in Sanming City, Fujian Province due to its regular distribution throughout the whole year. It affects the replacement of forest plants, site conditions, lowers the forest protection on water and soils, losing its function of conserving water sources, and regulating soil temperature. More combustible species such as Cunninghamia lanceolata and Pinus massoniana those comprise 76% of the total area also increasing challenge to the ecological health of the Sanming forests. Recently due to climate change of China, structure and composition of Sanming forest ecosystem are affected by dry and warm weather. Changing weather parameters such as rising temperature, high wind speed, low precipitation and humidity makes the forest environment unfavuorable for native plant and animal species. The ecosystem of the Sanming forest are severely disturbed by these causes, and it is somehow difficult to keep the ecosystem intact without applying sound ecological principle. So, the ability to predict and understand forest fire occurrences in Sanming is essential to implement necessary measures to mitigate these impacts.