Impacts of Informal Roads and Taiga Fire Interactions on Reindeer Habitat

Keywords: Indigenous, Arctic, Wildfires, Reindeer, Informal Roads
Session Type: Virtual Guided Poster Abstract
Day: Saturday
Session Start / End Time: 2/26/2022 03:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/26/2022 05:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 33

Abstract

Arctic and Sub-Arctic Indigenous peoples depend on reindeer for hunting and herding. Reindeer habitats in Eastern Siberia are significantly impacted by increasing wildfires, industrial activities, and informal road networks. Informal roads are undocumented transportation networks that include logging and other industrial access roads, paths, and trails used for subsistence activities. A more comprehensive understanding of interactions between wildfires and road networks requires interdisciplinary research and collaboration with local and Indigenous communities. This study derives from the analysis of interviews where residents expressed concern about the interaction of wildfires and informal roads impacting reindeer pasture lands. This presentation examines two hypotheses between wildfires and the informal road networks surrounding the Evenki village of Vershina Khandy in Irkutsk Oblast: (1) there is a correlation between fire ignition sites and informal roads based on proximity, and (2) informal roads serve as barriers to wildfire spread. Fire ignition points and spread patterns in 2019 are analyzed based on a combination of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), and high-resolution Sentinel-2 image datasets. To test the hypotheses, the distance between ignition points from MODIS and VIIRS is analyzed against the nearest road using the Bivariate Local Moran’s I, a spatial autocorrelation method. This is followed by a Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) using fire ignition points as the dependent variable and distance to roads as the explanatory variable. Our results will contribute to the greater understanding of the relationship between wildfires, reindeer, and the arctic Indigenous communities mediated by informal roads.