Date of Award

December 2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Environmental Engineering

First Advisor

Yeo Howe Lim

Abstract

Wildfire activity across Alaska’s boreal forests has intensified in severity and frequency in recent decades, altering one of Earth’s most significant sources of carbon sequestration (Pan et al, 2011). This thesis examines how wildland burns influence post-fire carbon sink capacities and vegetation recovery near Fairbanks, Alaska. Three fire sites were selected to represent distinct successional stages: the 2006 Parks Highway Fire, the 2013 Stuart Creek 2 Fire, and the 2022 Clear Fire. Each site was evaluated through a combination of remote sensing analysis, LiDAR-derived canopy height data, and field measurements collected within each burn perimeter, developing a replicable framework for assessing post-fire carbon dynamics in boreal ecosystems. Above-ground biomass (AGB) was estimated using established relationships between canopy height, vegetation density, and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and then converted to above-ground carbon (AGC). Preliminary results suggest a correlation between the time since burn and dominant vegetation. The 2013 Stuart Creek 2 plots displayed heterogeneous vegetative recovery, influenced by slope and soil moisture, while the 2022 Clear Fire remains dominated by early successional vegetation. This research aims to investigate how wildfires affect Alaska’s boreal forests, and their role in potentially shifting forests away from functioning as reliable long-term carbon sinks. Although multiple reforestation strategies could improve this shifting dynamic, this study focuses on targeted reforestation with stabilizing vegetation. This forest management strategy has the potential not only to prevent future wildfires in an area but also to decrease the burn temperature and depth, thereby providing other species with a larger window to develop and reach maturation between fires.

Download

Share

COinS