Fires on Ice: Emerging Permafrost Peatlands Fire Regimes in Russia’s Subarctic Taiga

Wildfires in permafrost areas, including smoldering fires (e.g., “zombie fires”), have increasingly become a concern the Arctic and subarctic. Their detection is difficult requires ground truthing. Local Indigenous knowledge are becoming useful sources of information that could guide future research wildfire management. This paper focuses on peatland Siberian subarctic taiga linked to local communities their infrastructure. It presents results field studies Evenki old-settler Tokma Khanda Irkutsk region Russia conjunction with concurrent remote sensing data analysis. The study areas located discontinuous zone allow examination dynamics wildfires peatlands adjacent forested areas. Interviews revealed an unusual prevalence witness-observed characteristics over permafrost, such as longer than expected fire risk periods, impacts community infrastructure, changes migration wild animals, increasing number overwintering fires” last five years. analysis satellite confirmed observations from communities, but demonstrated limited capacity imagery accurately capture changing activity peatlands, which may significant implications for global climate.