Spatiotemporal dynamics of forest and steppe fires in Mongolia (2004-2016)

Based on the statistical analysis of The Ministry of Emergency Situations of Mongolia for the period of 2004-2016, we have defined the general spatiotemporal dynamics of forest and steppe fires in the country. During the 13 years, 2349 fires were registered, on average it is 180.7 fires per year. The peaks in the total number of fires were in 2007 - 228, in 2012 - 229, in 2014 - 281 and in 2015 - 354 fires. We havn’t traced a clear periodicity of the maximums and minimums in the number of fires for the period of study. There is a tendency of significant reduction in the number of fires after peaks, with the exception of 2013. In 2004-2016, fires covered 39.04 million hectares of land, or 3.0 million hectares on average per year. Danger and frequency of forest and steppe fires in different aimags of Mongolia significantly vary. Northern and northeast aimags located in the steppe zone are affected by fires more strongly then northern and central aimags with taiga, steppe and forest-steppe vegetation. Southern and south-west aimags in semi-desert and desert zones are less prone to fires. Southern and southwestern aimags in the semi-desert and desert zones are relatively less vulnerable to fires. The main causes of fires in Mongolia are the anthropogenic ones on the background of natural factors, primarily the amount of precipitation and temperature in warm seasons.