Stephens et al. (2025) Corrigendum to “Substantial increases in burned area in circumboreal forests from 1983 to 2020 captured by the AVHRR record and a new autoregressive burned area detection algorithm” [Remote Sensing of Environment 325(2025) 114789]

Identification

• Journal: Remote Sensing of Environment
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-10-11
• Authors: Connor Stephens, Anthony R. Ives, Volker C. Radeloff
• DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2025.115069

Research Groups

• SILVIS Lab, Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
• Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA

Short Summary

This corrigendum addresses a data processing error in a previous study, which led to a slight overestimation of burned area in circumboreal forests from 1983 to 2020, and provides revised quantitative results while affirming the original conclusion of substantial increases in burned area.

Objective

• To correct a data summary error in the original paper that resulted in an overestimation of burned area estimates in circumboreal forests and to present the revised quantitative results.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Circumboreal forests, analyzed using 0.05-degree grid cells.
• Temporal Scale: 1983 to 2020.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: The original study utilized an autoregressive burned area detection algorithm. This corrigendum focuses on correcting a data conversion step rather than a model.
• Data sources: AVHRR record (as per the original paper's title). The error occurred during the conversion of 0.05-degree pixel burn fraction maps to total annual burned area.

Main Results

• A data summary error led to a slight overestimate of burned area estimates due to using a constant pixel size (corresponding to the equator) instead of adjusting for latitude.
• The overall conclusion that decadal average annual burned area has increased substantially remains valid, with a revised estimate of 45% (prior: 53%).
• The finding that annual burned area has increased in about a fifth of circumboreal forests also holds, with a revised estimate of 17.5% (prior: 19.6%).
• Specific quantitative revisions include:
  • Table 1: Average changes of -0.04 for "Burned Area Ratio (BA Ratio)", -0.01 for "Pearson Correlation", -0.02% for "Producer’s Accuracy", and -0.01% for "User’s Accuracy".
  • Table 2: Average changes of -1.90% for "1983-1992 Total BA", -3.06% for "2011-2020 Total BA", -1.16% for "Percentage Point Change", and -0.04 for "Proportional Increase".
  • Table 3: Average changes of -0.02 (%yr⁻¹) for trends and 0.03 for significance across all trend and significance columns.
• Figures 6, 7, and 9, which depict annualized burned area time series, decadal average burned area changes, and trends in annual burned area, respectively, have been revised to reflect the corrected data.

Contributions

• This corrigendum ensures the accuracy and reliability of the quantitative results presented in the original paper, thereby enhancing the scientific integrity of the burned area estimates and trends for circumboreal forests. It provides corrected metrics and figures, improving the precision of the reported changes.

Funding

No specific funding information is provided for this corrigendum.

Citation

@article{Stephens2025Corrigendum,
  author = {Stephens, Connor and Ives, Anthony R. and Radeloff, Volker C.},
  title = {Corrigendum to “Substantial increases in burned area in circumboreal forests from 1983 to 2020 captured by the AVHRR record and a new autoregressive burned area detection algorithm” [Remote Sensing of Environment 325(2025) 114789]},
  journal = {Remote Sensing of Environment},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1016/j.rse.2025.115069},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2025.115069}
}