Fire severity and recovery across Europe: exploring diversity and landscape configuration effects

In recent decades, European forests have faced an increased incidence of fire disturbances. This phenomenon is likely to persist, given the rising frequency of extreme events expected in the future. Estimating canopy recovery time after disturbance serves as critical assessment of ecological resilience, ultimately helping determine the ability of ecosystems to regain their capacity to provide essential services. This study estimated fire severity and post-disturbance recovery in European vegetated landscapes using a remote sensing-based time series approach. MODIS Leaf Area Index (LAI) time series data were used to track the evolution of vegetation cover over burned areas from 2001 to 2024. Fire severity was defined relative to pre-disturbance conditions by comparing vegetation status before and after fire events. Recovery intervals were determined from the temporal evolution of vegetation greening as the duration required to reach the pre-disturbance LAI baseline. Furthermore, this study analyzed severity and recovery indicators in relation to species diversity, landscape metrics and climatic variables across Europe, offering valuable insights into the spatial variability of vegetation response dynamics across diverse ecosystems. Results revealed a consistent pattern across vegetation cover types: higher diversity and greater landscape configuration complexity were associated with lower fire severity and, notably, faster recovery times following fire disturbance.