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Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology ›› 2026, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (4): 1014-1024.doi: 10.13287/j.1001-9332.202604.008

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Effects of fuel regulation treatment on the flammability and fire behavior of surface dead fuels in Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica plantations, Daxing’anling Mountains, China

YE Dongming1, LI Yifan1, NING Jibin1, ZHANG Ruijie1 , ZHANG Lin2 , ZHAO Fengjun3 , CHEN Feng4 , YANG Guang1*   

  1. 1Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Sustainable Forest Ecosystem Management, College of Forestry, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China;
    2Jilin Provincial Academy of Forestry Sciences, Changchun 130022, China;
    3Ecology and Nature Conservation Institute, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China;
    4College of Ecology and Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China
  • Received:2025-12-03 Revised:2026-03-02 Online:2026-04-18 Published:2026-05-29

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Abstract: A large amount of fuel has accumulated in the forests of Northeast China. Scientific regulation of surface fuel is crucial for reducing forest fire risk. To explore the effectiveness of different fuel regulation treatments, we set up six regulation treatments in Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica plantations in the Daxing’anling Mountains: low, medium, and high strength (different degrees of mowing, shrub clearing, pruning, and clearing dead surface fuel), surface clearing, fuel load enhancement, and shrub clearing, with untreated stands as the control. The effects of different treatments on physicochemical properties, fire behavior, and pyrolysis characteristics of dead surface fuel were examined. The results showed that high-strength treatment significantly increased ash content, ignition point, and water content of the fuel by 58.0%, 4.3 ℃, and 60.9%, respectively, while crude fat content, load, flame height, and maximum combustion temperature significantly decreased by 7.5%, 74.0%, 43.8%, and 100.8 ℃. In the surface clearing treatment, water content of the fuel significantly increased, while crude fat content, load, and rate of spread significantly decreased. In the fuel load enhancement treatment, crude fat content, load, and rate of spread of the fuel significantly increased. In the shrub clearing treatment, crude fat and ash content of the fuel significantly increased, while the rate of spread significantly decreased. In the medium-strength treatment, the ignition point of the fuel significantly increased, while the flame height significantly decreased. In the low-strength treatment, the spread rate of the fuel significantly increased. Compared with the control, the holocellulose degradation temperature range of each treatment increased significantly. After shrub clearing, the peak and average weight loss rates of holocellulose, the exothermic peak area, the percentage of lignin loss, and the total consumption decreased significantly, while the differences in other treatments were not significant. The principal component analysis comprehensive flammability ranking showed that the flammability from high to low was: fuel load enhancement treatment > medium-strength treatment > shrub clearing treatment > untreated > low-strength treatment > surface clearing treatment > high-strength treatment. In summary, the flammability of dead surface fuel in Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica forests significantly decreased under high-strength treatment, which could be used as a fuel regulation treatment for short-term fire prevention.

Key words: forest fuel management, hand labor method, flammability, pyrolysis characteristics, fire behavior, Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica