Assessment of ecohydrological response of Himalayan Forest ecosystems to forest fires

Himalayan forests boast an incredible biodiversity, harboring a wide range of flora and fauna and playing a significant role in regulating water resources. Forest fires are one of the disturbances which constitute a major force influencing, even determining, the structure and functions of ecological components-populations, communities, and ecosystems. The ability to withstand disturbance is defined as resistance whereas resilience is the capacity to recover from disturbance. These two terms define the ecohydrological response to forest fire. This study insights on how remote sensing technique can be utilized for the measurement of ecohydrological response of a large extent of region subjected to forest fire based on resistance-resilience framework and how further implementation of these measures would help to know the changes in the interaction been vegetation and water cycle. Normalized burn ratio (NBR) is used to quantify the response.  The outcome of the study reveals that deciduous needled leaf forests are subjected frequently to forest fires compared to other classes of forests during 2002-2022. The regions considered for study showed moderate to high range of resistance but low resilience, signifying the region has gained and lost vegetations in the post-fire. There was a variation in rainfall and run-off occurred during the post-fire year for different burn severities. The present approach has the potential to quantify the response of ecosystems to the forest fire and related effects on hydrology of the region.