Li et al. (2026) Climate driving factors of winter-spring wildfires in the Northeast and Southwest forest zones of China

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: International Journal of Wildland Fire
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-08-13
• Authors: Chenxin Li, Siquan Yang, Qichao Yao, Lamei Shi, Huiqian Yu, Di Wang
• DOI: 10.1071/wf25319

Research Groups

Not specified in the provided text.

Short Summary

This study identifies two primary high-activity wildfire regions in China (Northeast and Southwest) and demonstrates that while soil moisture deficit is the proximal driver for both, the broader climatic controls differ, involving the Arctic Oscillation in the Northeast and El Niño in the Southwest.

Objective

• To objectively identify coherent high-activity wildfire regions in China and clarify the climatic pathways regulating wildfire activity during the fire season.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Regional (China)
• Temporal Scale: 2001–2024

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Optimized clustering approach, Pearson correlation, and partial correlation analysis.
• Data sources: MCD64A1 burned area data.

Main Results

• Identified two representative high-activity wildfire regions: the Northeast fire regime area (NFR) and the Southwest fire regime area (SFR).
• Burned area peaks in both regions between February and April, with soil moisture (SM) deficit acting as the proximal control.
• In the NFR, SM is governed by a cryosphere–temperature pathway linked to Arctic Oscillation (AO) conditions during February–March.
• In the SFR, SM is governed by a thermally driven pathway, where temperature is positively associated with El Niño conditions during February–March.

Contributions

• Provides an objective delineation of fire regimes in China using optimized clustering.
• Distinguishes between the distinct climatic mechanisms (AO vs. El Niño) that regulate winter-spring wildfires in different geographical regions of China.

Funding

Not specified in the provided text.

Citation

@article{Li2026Climate,
  author = {Li, Chenxin and Yang, Siquan and Yao, Qichao and Shi, Lamei and Yu, Huiqian and Wang, Di},
  title = {Climate driving factors of winter-spring wildfires in the Northeast and Southwest forest zones of China},
  journal = {International Journal of Wildland Fire},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1071/wf25319},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1071/wf25319}
}