The 2020 Brazilian Pantanal fires

Pletsch, Mikhaela Aloísia Jéssie Santos; Silva, Celso; Penha, Thales Vaz; Körting, Thales Sehn; Silva, Maria E.S.; Pereira, Gabriel; Anderson, Liana O.; Aragão, Luiz E. O. C.

doi:10.1590/0001-3765202120210077

Cited by 12 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…The increase in the number of fire outbreaks was observed throughout the entire national territory (Fig. S4), even in floodable biomes where the impact of fires is generally smaller (Pletsch et al, 2021). In the specific case of Rio Grande do Sul, from January to May 2020, the State even presented a fourfold increase in the number of fires outbreaks when compared to 2019, surpassing states such as Mato Grosso (increase of 13%) and Mato Grosso do Sul (86%), which are traditionally beset with biomass burning (GZH, 2020).…”

Section: Changes Observed In Air Quality and Mobilitymentioning

confidence: 93%

Impacts of Strategic Mobility Restrictions Policies during 2020 COVID-19 Outbreak on Brazil’s Regional Air Quality

Rudke

Almeida

Alves

et al. 2022

Aerosol Air Qual. Res.

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With the unexpected arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries worldwide were forced to take measures to curb its transmission. Mobility restrictions policies were the primary preventive measures applied around the globe. In addition to reducing the disease spread, they resulted in air quality changes in urbanized areas. In this sense, this study aimed to investigate how the mobility restrictions imposed by public policies impacted the air quality in Brazil during the COVID-19 2020 outbreak. Therefore, air quality (CO, NO2, PM10, PM2.5, and O3) and urban mobility datasets available in five populous Brazilian states (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo, Paraná, and Rio Grande do Sul) were analyzed. Variations in air pollutant concentrations were verified by comparing the period during mobility restrictions (2020) and the average concentrations found before the restrictions (2015-2019). In addition, spatial assessment of changes was evaluated using tropospheric NO2 column densities from the TROPOMI. Although there was no national regulation regarding mobility restrictions, the results show that the reduction in urban mobility was similar for all the analyzed states. Following the mobility behavior, reducing air pollutant concentrations were significant for the first 30 days of restrictions. During this period, the most substantial reductions were observed for CO in the State of Rio Grande do Sul (-53%), NO2 in Rio de Janeiro (-34%), and PM10 in Espírito Santo (-23%). The exception was observed for O3, which followed the world trend of increasing concentrations (e.g., 40% increase in Paraná). Spatially, it was possible to evidence that large urban centers (with a large vehicle fleet) were the ones that showed the most significant reduction in NO2. However, when analyzing longer periods (over 90 days), there is a trend towards an increase in the concentrations of primary pollutants and a consequent reduction in O3, reflecting the significant increase in mobility rates.

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Section: Changes Observed In Air Quality and Mobilitymentioning

confidence: 93%

Impacts of Strategic Mobility Restrictions Policies during 2020 COVID-19 Outbreak on Brazil’s Regional Air Quality

Rudke

Almeida

Alves

et al. 2022

Aerosol Air Qual. Res.

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“…The Pantanal's burned area between 1985 and 2020 exceeded all the other Brazilian biomes [37], and during the anomalous dry and warm year of 2020, nearly 30% of the Biome was burned, affecting at least 65 million vertebrates [38], directly killing 17 million of them [19]. In 2020, the fire season across the Pantanal has reached striking records of fire activity, with an increase of about six times the annual cumulative number of fires in relation to the 2012-2019 average [15][16][17]. The dry 2019 and 2020 in the Pantanal were induced by unusually warm waters in the tropical North Atlantic, decreasing summer precipitation by ∼60% and depleting water levels across the basin [5].…”

Section: Study Regionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Located in the ecotone between the Amazonia and Cerrado biomes, the Xingu region is hypothesized to become vulnerable to transitions from forest into drier environment with more sparse vegetation, and an intensification of the region's fire regimes due to climate change may already be underway [14]. In the same manner, the Pantanal has been increasingly degraded by fires [15,16] and abrupt changes in its fire regimes could drive large-scale vegetation degradation, with catastrophic consequences for biodiversity [15,[17][18][19]. In combination with the lack of sustainable environmental and conservation practices, climate change might exacerbate the decreasing resilience during extremely dry and warm years, resulting in many negative social and environmental consequences across these biocultural heritage sites.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A compound event-oriented framework to tropical fire risk assessment in a changing climate

Ribeiro

Brando

Santos

et al. 2022

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Tropical fire activity closely follows the co-occurrence of multiple climate stressors. Yet, it remains challenging to quantify how changes in climate alter the likelihood of fire risks associated with compound events. Recent abrupt changes in fire regimes in iconic landscapes in Brazil (namely the Pantanal and Xingu) provide a key opportunity to evaluate how extremely dry and hot conditions, both together and individually, have influenced the probability of large fires. Here we quantify the relationships between climate and fire across these regions and provide evidence on the extent to which fire risk and the associated impacts could be constrained if anthropogenic global warming is limited. We investigate the burned area, differentiating between fire types according to land use (forest fires, savanna fires, farming fires and grassland and wetland fires), and derive present and future fire risks linked to multiple climate variables. We show that concurrent air dryness (high vapour-pressure deficit – VPD) and low precipitation have driven fire occurrence in both Xingu and the Pantanal, with VPD playing a dominant role. Historical climatic change has already increased compound event-related (CE-related) fire risks of all fire types (5%-10%), and these risks are likely to increase in the future due to global warming. The likelihood of CE-related increase in fire risk may be reduced by up to 14.4% if global warming is constrained to +1.5°C instead of +3°C. Nevertheless, substantially increased CE-related fire risks are still expected even if restricting global mean warming to 1.5 °C, particularly in the Pantanal. We thus conclude that climate action should be coordinated with environmental protection to reduce ignition sources and promote effective conservation measures to preserve these biomes.

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“…In 2020, a mega-fire of catastrophic proportions affected 26% of the Pantanal in Brazil (Lois, 2021), one of the major world biosphere reserves of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the largest tropical wetland in the world, with an area of 150,355 km 2 (UNESCO, 2020). During this event, 3.9 million hectares were burned, 17 million vertebrates died (Lois, 2021), and about 115 million tons of CO 2 were emitted into the atmosphere (Pletsch et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring Gross Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Forest Fires in the Abrace o Pantanal Project Area

Figueiredo¹,

Filho²

2023

Nat. Soc.: Desafíos Medioambient.

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This study aims to evaluate the impact of the Abrace o Pantanal (Embrace the Pantanal) project on reducing carbon dioxide emissions caused by forest fires in the Pantanal biome in Brazil. The project consists of early detection and monitoring of wildfires using high-resolution cameras and satellite data, aided by the Pantera platform, which facilitates communication and the mobilization of firefighting brigades. The project covers 2.5 million hectares of the Pantanal biome, with five cameras installed in the Serra do Amolar region, an area severely affected by wildfires in 2020. To measure the project’s impact on reducing carbon dioxide emissions, we used the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Guidelines to calculate gross emissions from forest fires. We also analyzed burned area per year and land cover in the project area from 2016 to 2020 using MapBiomas Fire Collection 1 and Land Use and Land Cover Maps (Collection 6) from Mapbiomas. Our results show that the project reduced burned areas and emissions from fires, with highly discrepant results in 2020 due to catastrophic fires. To verify the concrete impacts of the project, we propose measuring the number of fire outbreaks detected, conducting interviews with firefighters, and comparing the results from 2021 to 2025 with the previous period. The average burned area and carbon dioxide emissions from 2016 to 2020 will be a reference value. Nevertheless, other factors may also affect the frequency and intensity of forest fires, such as climate change, demographic changes, and regulatory and political pressure. Therefore, it is impossible to establish a strict causal relationship between the project and the reduction of burned areas and emissions. In conclusion, the Abrace o Pantanal project has shown promising results in reducing carbon dioxide emissions from forest fires in the Pantanal biome. Continued monitoring and evaluation of the project’s impact is crucial to understanding the effectiveness of early detection and firefighting measures in preserving the Pantanal’s biodiversity and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Community empowerment (through the appropriation of the technology) has played a major role in the development of the project and its overall impact.

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The 2020 Brazilian Pantanal fires

Cited by 12 publications

References 3 publications

Impacts of Strategic Mobility Restrictions Policies during 2020 COVID-19 Outbreak on Brazil’s Regional Air Quality

Impacts of Strategic Mobility Restrictions Policies during 2020 COVID-19 Outbreak on Brazil’s Regional Air Quality

A compound event-oriented framework to tropical fire risk assessment in a changing climate

Measuring Gross Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Forest Fires in the Abrace o Pantanal Project Area

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