The Blazing Siberia

The pandemic has caused more damage than we expected. Apart from shaking each and every aspect of economic and health-care infrastructure, virus seems to have taken priority over climate change. Media houses, as a result, are more interested in delivering the daily routines of VVIP-corona patients than showcasing and acknowledging the ongoing climatic disasters all over the planet. Floods in Bihar and Assam, bush fires scorching near Phoenix, mineral fire in California, hurricane in Texas, landslides in Alaska and lethal heat waves in Arctic, all these natural disasters are placed in the bottom of the priority list of our media. In this article we will talk about the forest fires in Siberia…

The actual photographs taken by NASA

The clouds concentrated on the lower edge of the image are the clouds formed due to smoke arising from forest fires.

The forests of Siberia are blazing day in and day out. The forest fire started during May-June, and it appears that the end of this calamity is not at all near. Siberia is a region in Russia, which is among the most sparsely populated regions of the world. Loosely speaking, Asian portion of Russia is known as the Siberia. It stretches from the country’s boundaries in south (shared with Kazakhsthan in South-West, Mongolia in South and China in South-East) to all the way up in North, well inside the Arctic Circle. Most major cities of the regions are located southwards, due to the harsh conditions of northern regions. Siberia exhibit three kinds of vegetation, viz., Tundra vegetation (found in the area under Arctic Circle), Taiga vegetation (most abundant type of vegetation in Siberia) and Temperate vegetation (found in lower boundaries of the country). For a better understanding of the distribution of these vegetation types in Siberia, here is an image depicting ranges of forest/vegetation types. Bright green colour represents the area of temperate forests; darker green colour denotes the presence of Taiga forests; and finally the teal colour represents the least fertile and most harsh Tundra forests.

This region alone covers about 9% of total earth’s surface, with an area of about 13.1 million square kilometres. Now that we have understood the basic physiographic facts of Siberia, let us take a look at the forest fires and heat waves of Arctic.

At first, it seems less probable that the area known as the coolest place on earth can experience a heat-related problem. Nevertheless, it’s true. Scientists have claimed that Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world. Still, what do you think the maximum average temperature can be in the summer time of a region that remains under snow for more than 8 months every year? The north Siberian city of Verkhoyansk that never experienced (maximum average) temperature above 20C, recorded about 28C in 2019, setting a new record only to break it this year with 38C. For a city few hundred miles away from North Pole, this is definitely an ALARMING situation. These heat waves that the region has been experiencing for past 2-3 years are worsening with every new calendar. These record-breaking heat waves are the result of unprecedented sunny weather and human-caused climate change. These heat waves last long, very long and ignite the nearby forests. While these heat waves and other contributors (such as lightening) initiate the flame, factors like strong wind and presence of high amount of dried peat in forest floors proliferate the fire. Dried peat is a major factor of the unlocking of the carbon (green house gases) into the atmosphere. Actually, high concentrations of organic matter make the forest floor more vulnerable to fires, converting the whole area into a high risk zone, which some call a PEATLAND. These peatlands, during the heat waves become living furnaces, trapping one and all living creatures around. When these peatlands burn, the high carbon content present in the forest soil is released into atmosphere and this process of release of carbon is fancily known as CARBON UNLOCKING. Spread of fire is faster and fire is also sustained for longer durations in these regions. Since the Siberian forests remain snow-covered for a long period of time during long winters, these peatlands remain untouched. This is the reason why the wild-fires of Siberia are a major threat, capable of destroying a large portion of wilderness. The fires have already devoured land similar in size to Karnataka!

Some might argue that natural succession will take place and do the job. Twisted use of ecological terms to justify our wrongdoings is a new trend. But the reality is a bit different. We need to understand the chronology of ecological successions and the allied factors too. Succession is a very complex and long process. But these natural calamities, thanks to human interference, reoccur very frequently. This interrupts the natural succession and thus the vegetation of the region undergoes a permanent change. The only thing capable of growing in between these quick successions is grass. Therefore, as a result, the dense Taiga forests are replaced by the grasslands. This, of course, changes everything, from topography of the region to the geographical distribution of fauna. We must take responsibility of our actions and should reconsider our priorities in order to save this planet from certain damnation.

 

I personally believe that the careless acts of men never go unnoticed; they are reflected in nature, for the nature is our mirror. And this mirror seems to have very sensitive poles, where the effect is reflected in the most vivid colours.

Hope you learned something new and interesting today…..

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