Investigation of the relationship between burned areas and climate factors in large forest fires in the Çanakkale region Mertol Ertugrul & Halil Baris Ozel & Tugrul Varol & Mehmet Cetin & Hakan Sevik Received: 7 September 2019 /Accepted: 30 October 2019 # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 Abstract Fires pose a serious threat to the forests that lay on the western and southern coastline of Turkey that start with North Aegean coasts and end with the provin- cial boundaries of Hatay. Çanakkale, a western province of Turkey, is located in the North Aegean boundary and its topography (Dardanelles Strait), climate, and vegeta- tion cover combine to form an inviting recipe to forest fires. Although the province is located in a transitional zone in terms of climate and vegetation, each year it witnesses highly dry and hot fire seasons. Thus, large forest fires occur periodically. In this research, the rela- tionship between the large periodic fires (larger than 100 ha) and the climate data was investigated, with a partic- ular focus on the most severe 8 fire seasons from 1969 to 2007. We established that there is a relationship between 1977, 1985, and 1986 fire seasons and the climate data for the corresponding periods. The remaining 5 seasons in which conflagrations occurred were also found to coincide with the days with high daily severity indices (DSR). These are 1969, 1977, 1985, 1987, and 2008. Additionally, 2008 was determined as the year with the highest fire risk, followed by year 1969. Keywords Burned area . Climate factors . Daily severity index . Forest fires . Seasonal severity index Introduction The forests under the administration of Çanakkale For- estry Department are under a high risk due to their vegetation covers, climate, and topographic properties. This region undergoes highly hazardous, hot and windy fire seasons each year. Pinus brutia (also known as Turkish Pine) is among the tree species which are highly sensitive to forest fires in Turkey. Despite of that, Pinus brutia has evolved to adapt in such major disturbances caused to the forest ecosystems such as forest fires (Naveh 1975; Tavşanoğlu 2010). Several studies have been carried out to investigate the fire behaviors of Pinus brutia forests (Kucuk et al. 2012; Bilgili and Kucuk 2008; Kucuk and Bilgili 2008; Kucuk and Bilgili 2007; Coşkuner et al. 2014). Combinations of Pinus brutia forests with maquis shrub lands pose even higher fire risks. In such forests, decreased closure increases maquis vegetation at the lower layer leading to an in- creased risk of fire (Saribaşak et al. 2010). Mediterra- nean maquis shrub lands showed the highest average fire intensity values among fuel types while the lowest fire intensity was observed in the grasslands (Salis et al. 2016). Assessing forests areas with carbon storage Environ Monit Assess (2019) 191:737 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-019-7946-6 M. Ertugrul : H. B. Ozel : T. Varol Faculty of Forestry, Department of Forest Engineering, Bartin University, Bartin, Turkey M. Cetin (*) Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Department of Landscape Architecture, Kastamonu University, Kastamonu, Turkey e-mail: mcetin@kastamonu.edu.tr H. Sevik Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Department of Environmental Engineering, Kastamonu University, Kastamonu, Turkey