The Susceptibility of Southeastern Amazon Forests to Fire: Insights from a Large-Scale Burn Experiment

2 de setembro de 2015

set 2, 2015

Jennifer K. Balch, Paulo M. Brando, Daniel C. Nepstad, Michael T. Coe, Divino Silvério, Tara J. Massad, Eric A. Davidson, Paul Lefebvre, Claudinei Oliveira-Santos, Wanderley Rocha, Roberta T. S. Cury, Amoreena Parsons, Karine S. Carvalho

The interaction between droughts and land-use fires threaten the carbon stocks, climate regulatory functions, and biodiversity of Amazon forests, particularly in the southeast, where deforestation and land-use ignitions are high. Repeated, severe, or combined fires and droughts result in tropical forest degradation via nonlinear dynamics and may lead to an alternate vegetation state. Here, we discuss the major insights from the longest (more than 10 years) and largest (150-hectare) experimental burn in Amazon forests.

Despite initial forest resistance to low-intensity fires, repeated fire during drought killed the majority of trees, reduced canopy cover by half, and favored invasive grasses—but the persistence of this novel vegetation state is unknown. Forest edges, where drying, fire intensity and grass invasion are greatest, were most vulnerable. Crucial to advancing fire ecology in tropical forests, we need to scale these results to understand how flammability and resilience postfire varies across Amazon forest types.

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Boletim Amazônia em Pauta 8 – 10 razões para o desmatamento zero ilegal e legal na Amazônia

Boletim Amazônia em Pauta 8 – 10 razões para o desmatamento zero ilegal e legal na Amazônia

No que se refere à redução do desmatamento amazônico e de suas emissões associadas, a meta estabelecida precisa urgentemente ser cumprida muito antes de 2030, e mais: deve-se buscar o fim da supressão legal da vegetação nativa da região. Neste boletim são citadas as dez principais razões para colocar fim à destruição da maior floresta tropical do planeta.