Effect of weather changes on fire regime of Neka and Behshahr forests

Since the global warming and climate changes are the major worldwide driving factors affecting forest fire ignition, investigation of the relationship between climatic variables and fire occurrence is very important. The present study was aimed to investigate the effect of climate factors on fire regime of Neka and Behshahr forests. The records of number and area of fire occurrences in Neka and Behshahr forests during five years (2006-2010) were provided from Mazandaran Natural Resources Administration. In addition, the climatic data (average annual temperature, average annual relative humidity and average annual precipitation) of these counties recorded in five recent years from the nearest meteorological stations was provided from Mazandaran Meteorological Administration. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to get the correlation between climatic data and the number and area of the fires. The results showed that in Behshahr forests there were significant relationship between the number of fires and average annual temperature at 99% confidence level and between the number of fires and average annual precipitation at 95% confidence level. Furthermore, there were significant relationship between the area of fire occurrences in Behshahr forests and average annual temperature and average annual precipitation at 95% confidence level; while the results did not show any significant relationship in Neka forests between the number and area of fires and climatic data. Thus, it seems that the occurred fires in this county have often been due to the human factors.