Boreal Forest Carbon Stocks and Combustion Rates from 2015 Wildfires, Saskatchewan 2016

2016 field measurements from 79 boreal forest stands in central Saskatchewan, Canada, characterize carbon stocks and combustion rates. The dataset, produced by NASA, includes 47 stands burned in 2015 wildfires and 32 comparable unburned stands. It provides estimates of pre-fire carbon stocks and combustion values for above- and below-ground pools, with associated uncertainties.

Use Cases

• Modeling carbon emissions from boreal wildfires based on estimated combustion rates.
• Assessing post-fire ecosystem carbon stock changes based on field measurements of vegetative communities and soils.
• Calibrating remote sensing or ecological models using ground-truthed carbon stock data from burned and unburned stands.

Strengths

• Data from 79 distinct field sites (47 burned, 32 unburned) provides a substantial sample for analysis.
• Includes estimates of uncertainty for carbon stocks and combustion values, generated using a Monte Carlo framework.
• Measurements cover multiple ecosystem components: vegetative community, soils, and basic landscape geophysical traits.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Field observations and sampling, combined with linear and mixed-effects modeling calibrated against unburned stands.

Time Range

2016

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 19:41:22.252378; freshness should be verified

Geography

Central Saskatchewan (SK), Canada, near La Ronge and Weyakwin communities.