Impact of fires on an open bamboo forest in years of extreme drought in southwestern Amazonia

Silva, Sonaira Souza da; Numata, Izaya; Fearnside, Philip M.; Graça, Paulo Maurício Lima de Alencastro; Ferreira, Evandro José Linhares; Santos, Ednéia Araújo dos; Lima, Pedro Raimundo Ferreira de; Dias, M.S.; Lima, Rodrigo Cunha de; Melo, A. W. F. de

doi:10.1007/s10113-020-01707-5

Cited by 13 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 53 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Differences among fire impacts found in this and other studies likely result from differences in pre-fire vegetation characteristics, local drought severity and fire behaviour [ 9 , 11 , 50 ]. Furthermore, several methodological differences may reduce comparability.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 62%

“…This loss is less extreme than those reported for similar time intervals in more seasonal regions in the central-eastern (36–66%) [ 15 , 17 , 18 , 50 ] and in the southwestern Amazon (approx. 50%) [ 11 , 51 ]. However, our results are more similar to those found in the phytogeographic borders of the Amazon (less than or equal to 23%) [ 9 , 15 , 52 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To support future decision making to avoid large-scale forest fire in the Amazon, we also recommend the development of two products: (i) mapping of the forest fire risk, based on the spatial variability of the drivers of fire spread and intensity, such as the rainfall regime, amount of surface fuel and forest microclimate [2,9,26]; and (ii) mapping of potential fire impact (fire sensitivity/resistance), derived mainly from the spatiality of morphological plant traits [21][22][23]. These products could indicate specific forest types and regions demanding special attention regarding fire occurrence, such as forests recovering from disturbances, which are susceptible to even greater losses if affected by a second fire event [11,15]; and seasonally flooded forests, which are highly susceptible and sensitive to fire due to their higher fine-fuel load, and flammable root mat [29]. As previously cited, one critical region under threat of fire degradation is the Purus-Madeira, which is fully permeated by flooded forest networks.…”

Section: (D) Insights For Future Work and Forest Protection Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Wildfires are thus one of the key factors determining the likelihood of large-scale forest dieback in the Amazon [8]. Fire impacts on forests are amplified by drought [9], leading to long-term changes in forest structure and biomass [10,11]. Forest fires burned an estimated 9246 km 2 in the Brazilian Amazon, approximately 24% of all fires, during the extreme El Niño drought of 2015/2016, a share of fire area that was two times greater than during the previous extreme drought (2010) [3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…determining the likelihood of large-scale forest dieback in the Amazon [8]. Fire impacts on forests are amplified by drought [9], leading to long-term changes in forest structure and biomass [10,11]. Forest fires burned an estimated 9246 km 2 in the Brazilian Amazon, approximately 24% of all fires, during the…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Drought-driven wildfire impacts on structure and dynamics in a wet Central Amazonian forest

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

While the climate and human-induced forest degradation is increasing in the Amazon, fire impacts on forest dynamics remain understudied in the wetter regions of the basin, which are susceptible to large wildfires only during extreme droughts. To address this gap, we installed burned and unburned plots immediately after a wildfire in the northern Purus-Madeira (Central Amazon) during the 2015 El-Niño. We measured all individuals with diameter of 10 cm or more at breast height and conducted recensuses to track the demographic drivers of biomass change over 3 years. We also assessed how stem-level growth and mortality were influenced by fire intensity (proxied by char height) and tree morphological traits (size and wood density). Overall, the burned forest lost 27.3% of stem density and 12.8% of biomass, concentrated in small and medium trees. Mortality drove these losses in the first 2 years and recruitment decreased in the third year. The fire increased growth in lower wood density and larger sized trees, while char height had transitory strong effects increasing tree mortality. Our findings suggest that fire impacts are weaker in the wetter Amazon. Here, trees of greater sizes and higher wood densities may confer a margin of fire resistance; however, this may not extend to higher intensity fires arising from climate change.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 62%