Record-breaking wildfires in the world's largest continuous tropical wetland: Integrative fire management is urgently needed for both biodiversity and humans

Garcia, L. C.; Szabo, Judit K.; Roque, Fábio de Oliveira; Pereira, Alexandre de Matos Martins; Cunha, Cátia Nunes da; Damasceno‐Junior, Geraldo Alves; Morato, Ronaldo Gonçalves; Tomás, Walfrido Moraes; Libonati, Renata; Ribeiro, Danilo Bandini

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112870

Cited by 81 publications

(31 citation statements)

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“…Accordingly, any strategy to mitigate the effects of wildfires in the Pantanal needs to consider a combination of these factors and the different characteristics of each one. Accordingly, integrative fire strategies should require adaptive and social transformative perspectives [4,60]. Thus, our results may improve the assessment of potential high-impact hazards, like the P20F, helping stakeholders to act upon these complex events.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…It is worth mentioning that fire is also influenced by drivers beyond those directly associated with weather conditions, namely fuel availability and socio-economic factors. As stated by previous authors [2,4,58], the P20F outbreak is not attributable to just a single factor, but rather results from a complex interplay among several contributing factors, including weather conditions, availability of fuel (vegetation), and human ignition sources (both accidental and intended) [2]. A recent study showed that human-caused fires exacerbated drought effects on natural ecosystem during the P20F season, with more BAs primarily over natural areas [59].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…In 2020, the world witnessed one-quarter of the Brazilian Pantanal, the largest continuous tropical wetland, on fire [1,2]. More than 3.9 million hectares were burned, an area four times larger than the longterm average observed between 2001 and 2019 [3,4]. The Pantanal 2020 fire (hereafter P20F) season may have directly affected 17 million native vertebrates [5] and resulted in total national economic losses of ∼USD 3.6 billion [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assessing the role of compound drought and heatwave events on unprecedented 2020 wildfires in the Pantanal

Libonati

Geirinhas

Silva

et al. 2022

Environ. Res. Lett.

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The year 2020 had the most catastrophic fire season over the last two decades in the Pantanal, which led to outstanding environmental impacts. Indeed, much of the Pantanal has been affected by severe dry conditions since 2019, with evidence of the 2020’s drought being the most extreme and widespread ever recorded in the last 70 years. Although it is unquestionable that this mega-drought contributed significantly to the increase of fire risk, so far, the 2020’s fire season has been analyzed at the univariate level of a single climate event, not considering the co-occurrence of extreme and persistent temperatures with soil dryness conditions. Here, we show that similarly to other areas of the globe, the influence of land-atmosphere feedbacks contributed decisively to the simultaneous occurrence of dry and hot spells (HPs), exacerbating fire risk. The ideal synoptic conditions for strong atmospheric heating and large evaporation rates were present, in particular during the HPs, when the maximum temperature was, on average, 6 ºC above the normal. The short span of the period during those compound drought-heatwave (CDHW) events accounted for 55% of the burned area of 2020. The vulnerability in the northern forested areas was higher than in the other areas, revealing a synergistic effect between fuel availability and weather-hydrological conditions. Accordingly, where fuel is not a limiting factor, fire activity tends to be more modelled by CDHW events. Our work advances beyond an isolated event-level basis towards a compound and cascading natural hazards approach, simultaneously estimating the contribution of drought and heatwaves to fuelling extreme fire outbreaks in the Pantanal such as those in 2020. Thus, these findings are relevant within a broader context, as the driving mechanisms apply across other ecosystems, implying higher flammability conditions and further efforts for monitoring and predicting such extreme events.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assessing the role of compound drought and heatwave events on unprecedented 2020 wildfires in the Pantanal

Libonati

Geirinhas

Silva

et al. 2022

Environ. Res. Lett.

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“…This means that the source of areas to replenish populations in the vicinity of roads is also decreasing. Such depletion impact may further reduce giant anteater population resilience and ability to withstand or recover from other anthropogenic threats, such as fires, impact of pesticides and agrochemicals, conflict with dogs, persecution by people or disease outbreak (Bertassoni et al, 2019;Garcia et al, 2021;Miranda et al, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the impact of roadkill on the persistence of wildlife populations: a case study on the giant anteater

Ascensão

Desbiez

2022

Preprint

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Human activity is depleting biodiversity, and road networks are directly contributing to this trend due to roadkill. Nevertheless, few studies empirically estimated the impact of roadkill on wildlife populations. We integrated information on roadkill rates, population abundance, and animal movement to estimate the survival rates and the proportion of the population likely to be extirpated due to roadkill, using giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) as model species. We then assessed the consequent implications of roadkill on population persistence using population viability analysis (PVA). The yearly survival rate of resident anteaters inhabiting road vicinity areas (0.78; CI:0.62-0.97) was considerably lower than for those living far from roads (0.95; CI:0.86-1.00). The real number of anteaters being road-killed is considerably higher than the one recorded in previous studies (by a factor of 2.4), with ca. 20% of the population inhabiting road vicinity areas being road-killed every year. According to PVA results, roadkill can greatly affect the persistence of the giant anteater populations by reducing the growth rate down to null or negative values. This study confirms that roads have significant impacts on local population persistence. Such impacts are likely to be common to other large mammals, calling for effective mitigation to reduce roadkill rates.

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“…Therefore, it is expected that such wildfires directly affect the local populations of small mammals, as in other fire-driven ecosystems (e.g., Koprowski et al 2006;Conner et al 2011;Leahy et al 2015;Pacheco et al 2021). In some anomalous years, the fires in Pantanal may cover larger areas, influenced by natural events associated with anthropogenic factors such as the opening of pastures and agricultural areas (Alho and Silva 2012; Garcia et al 2021;Marengo et al 2021;Marques et al 2021). This was the case in 2020, when wildfires burned approximately 26 % of the Brazilian Pantanal (Garcia et al 2021;Libonati et al 2021) and directly affected local flora and fauna (Garcia et al 2021;Tomas et al 2021).…”

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confidence: 99%

Discovery of underground shelters occupied by the Chacoan Marsh Rat after massive wildfires in Pantanal, Brazil

Semedo¹,

Libardi

Strüssmann

et al. 2022

Therya notes

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Las sequías e incendios forestales que afectaron el Pantanal, la mayor llanura inundada de Sudamérica, en 2020 impactaron fuertemente la biota, cuya resiliencia a estos tipos de eventos extremos todavía es desconocida. Durante muestreos posteriores a los incendios en sitios impactados, encontramos tres cuevas habitadas por la rata colorada chaqueña, Holochilus chacarius. Además, encontramos a un bagre calíctido (Hoplosternum sp.) y a un cangrejo tricodactílido (Dilocarcinus pagei) cohabitando una de las cuevas con H. chacarius. Reportamos, por primera vez, el uso de una cueva inundada por la rata colorada. Discutimos la importancia de dichas estructuras para la supervivencia posterior al incendio y si pueden servir como refugio para H. chacarius y otras especies a eventos extremos de incendios y sequía, a la luz de estudios previos con otros taxones.

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Record-breaking wildfires in the world's largest continuous tropical wetland: Integrative fire management is urgently needed for both biodiversity and humans

Cited by 81 publications

References 45 publications

Assessing the role of compound drought and heatwave events on unprecedented 2020 wildfires in the Pantanal

Assessing the role of compound drought and heatwave events on unprecedented 2020 wildfires in the Pantanal

Assessing the impact of roadkill on the persistence of wildlife populations: a case study on the giant anteater

Discovery of underground shelters occupied by the Chacoan Marsh Rat after massive wildfires in Pantanal, Brazil

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