Quantification of greenhouse gas emissions from forest fire in the area of the Slovak Paradise National Park

Forests play a significant role in the protection of biodiversity and ecological functions. In the areas exposed to fire risks, forests are important carbon reservoirs, which represent a source of emissions during fires. Fire regime is not a characteristic feature of the Central European area. As global warming and climate change continues, fires threaten central European countries more frequently. In the past, fire risk was relatively low, and fires threatened Central Europe only under extreme weather fluctuations, but in the last years these anomalies have occurred more frequently, and it is assumed that their course and intensity will gradually increase. In the presented paper we deal with the quantification of greenhouse gas emissions from forest fires. We base our work on the inventory methodology of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. We tried to apply its individual conceptions (TIER 1–3) in the conditions of Slovakia, and presented the problems of their applications. The results indicate that the conceptions differ in the quantification of biomass available for burning, which was underestimated in the case of TIER 1 conception in comparison to TIER 2 and TIER 3, and also in the quantification of emissions. The emissions produced during the flameless burning phase were underestimated, while the CO2 emissions were slightly overestimated when comparing TIER 2 and TIER 3 approaches. The final assessment of the whole process points out at the problematic issues in the calculations of GHG emissions. To determine the overall accuracy of this calculation it will be necessary to pay more attention to the mentioned problematic issues.