Evapotranspiration in Northern Taiga Forests of the Nizhnyaya Tunguska River Basin Factoring in Their Post-Fire Dynamics

The paper highlights the impact of forest cover disturbance on evapotranspiration changes within a river basin. The dynamics of forest cover disturbance as a result of forest fires in the Nizhnyaya Tunguska River basin for 2001—2020 was analysed based on Landsat satellite imagery. It was found that, as regards the spatial aspect, evapotranspiration in the Nizhnyaya Tunguska River basin is differentiated between the test catchments, which differ in climatic conditions and vegetation cover. Concerning the temporal aspect, a decrease in the weighted average evapotranspiration was noted as the area of burnt areas accumulated. It was revealed that the difference in the evapotranspiration decrease in undisturbed and disturbed areas depends both on the overall disturbance of the forest cover in the catchment area and on the area of burnt areas from the current year, with the effect of fresh burnt areas showing if their area is more than 3% of the catchment area.