Fires occur in most forest reserves in Ghana. However, there is a limited understanding of the fires and their behaviour in the different ecological zones. Therefore, this research was to analyze the spatial and temporal distribution of fires, examine the driving factors, direct and underlying causes and impacts of the fires, determine and compare the fuel dynamics to predict fire behaviour and estimate the effects of fire on carbon stocks in different ecological zones of Ghana. The research used different methodologies including questionnaires, fire records, satellite fire data from MODIS (2001 to 2015) (first approach) and field experiment (second approach). A total of 304 respondents was sampled for eight communities, two communities each around the moist and dry semi-deciduous forest, upland evergreen forest and savanna. The spatial distribution of fire showed a trend along the forest boundaries, open vegetation, degraded areas, human settlements, shrubs, farms, rivers and roads. The temporal trend was significant in the dry forest (435 hotspots), followed by the savanna (229 hotspots), moist forest (76 hotspots) and the least in the evergreen forest (5 hotspots). The fires were observed from August, October to May with the dry forest having the longest seasonality. Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday were the peak days of the detected fire hotspots in the dry, moist and savanna respectively. Most of the fires in the different ecological zones peaked from 13 to 14 pm. The results of the research also revealed that the fires were driven primarily by socioeconomic factors which were supported by environmental, type of vegetation and cultural factors. In all the ecological zones, fires were originating from humans. The study pointed out three categories of human-caused fires through activity (farming), non-activity (carelessness or negligence) and others (unknown causes). The major underlying causes of fire mentioned were the inadequate management of the forest and weak compliance and enforcement of forest laws. All these fires have resulted in several impacts in the various ecological zones. Concerning the fuel dynamics, the total downed woody fuel load in the evergreen forest was found to be higher (228 and 208.4 tonnes per hectare). The litter and duff density (112.2 kilogram per cubic meter) in unburned area and loading (6.3 and 13.5 tonnes per hectare) for both burned and unburned area respectively were significantly greater in the moist forest. Also, the dry forest showed 2.4 tonnes per hectare of herbaceous loading in the burned area. However, fires were predicted to be severe in the savanna regarding the surface rate of spread, flame length and fireline intensity, but with low reaction intensity and heat per unit area. The total amount of aboveground tree carbon, aboveground non-tree and belowground root for both burned and the unburned area varied under the different ecological zones. The highest was seen in the moist forest with the emission of 294 tonnes of carbon per hectare accounting for 82% losses. This research has brought out the current situation of fire in the various ecological zones for the implementation of necessary actions for the future.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:31173 |
| Date | 30 August 2018 |
| Creators | Nindel, Sandra |
| Contributors | Müller, Michael, Barnes, Victor Rex, Kapp, Gerald, Rumberg, Michael, Technische Universität Dresden |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | doc-type:doctoralThesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, doc-type:Text |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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