Recent Advancements in the Emission Characteristics of Forest Ground Smoldering Combustion

The occurrence of forest ground smoldering combustion has been increasingly frequent in recent years, resulting in significant emissions that have a detrimental impact on the ecological environment. Current research on smoldering emissions, however, is relatively scarce and fragmented across the fields of ecology, environmental protection, medicine, and forestry. The present paper offers a comprehensive review of the research methodologies employed in emissions, emission quantification results, the correlation between emissions and fire behaviors, and the potential for identifying smoldering combustion through emissions. Due to various factors such as the research region, characteristics of the samples, and experimental methods, it becomes challenging to arrive at comprehensive and accurate conclusions regarding the carbon cycle, dynamics of smoke plumes, and toxicological hazards. The limited research on the correlation between emissions and fire behaviors hampers the development and application of smoldering combustion identification technology based on emissions. It is suggested that standardized and universal methods for studying emissions should be popularized among researchers. In addition, the research on the correlation between emission characteristics and combustion temperature, spread direction, and spread velocity needs to be further strengthened.