Fire regime, climate, and vegetation in the Sierras de Córdoba, Argentina

Abstract

Wildfires are a primary disturbance in the Sierras de Córdoba, Argentina,with approximately 2152000 ha burned between 1993 and 2012. However,little is known about the spatial and temporal patterns of fires and theirrelationship with climate and vegetation in this area. Such information isof great value for fire risk assessment and the development of strategies forfire management. Our main objective was to analyze fire activity in four sierranranges, assessing which weather and climate conditions were mostly relatedto fire activity, and which land cover types were mostly burned. Weused a fire database of mid-high spatial resolution and a land cover mapderived from Landsat imagery. Fire regimes were different among the differentsierran ranges. The Sierras Chicas range was the most affected byfires, with the largest number of fire events, burned area, and fire frequency.Although large fires represented 3% to 5% of fire events, they accountedfor 60% to 86% of total burned area in different sierran ranges. Sierrasof lower elevation had a winter seasonality of fires, while sierras ofhigher elevation had a winter-spring or spring fire seasonality. The number offire events was positively correlated with preceding periods that were wetterthan normal, while the burned area was mainly associated with midtermweather conditions. Fires occurred mainly in grasslands and shrublands,but the area of burned forests was important, too. Our results will be usefulto determine the times and conditions in which fire risk is highest, and also toidentify where preventive efforts should be focused.