Recent deforestation drove the spike in Amazonian fires

• Autores: Cardil, Adrián; de Miguel, Sergio Ruben; Silva, Carlos A.; Reich, Peter B.; Calkin, David; Brancalion, Pedro H.S.; Vibrans, Alexander C.; Gamarra, Javier G.P.; Zhou, M.; Pijanowski, Bryan C.; Hui, Cang; Crowther, Thomas W.; Hérault, Bruno; Piotto, Daniel; Salas-Eljatib, Christian; Broadbent, Eben North; Almeyda Zambrano, Angelica M.; Picard, Nicolas; Aragao, Luiz E.O.C.; Bastin, Jean Francois; Routh, Devin; Van Den Hoogen, Johan; Peri, Pablo Luis; Liang, Jingjing
• Año de publicación: 2020
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: artículo
• Materia: AMAZON; DEFORESTATION; FIRE; FOREST POLICY; LAND-USE CHANGE; TROPICAL MOIST FOREST
• Institución: Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas

Tropical forests are of global importance even though they only cover around 10% of the Earth's land surface. They store large amounts of carbon and host between one-half and two-thirds of the world's species (Lewis 2006). Small changes in the tropical moist forest—the most biodiverse biome within the tropical forests—may lead to global impacts on climate dynamics and warming, water cycles, and the loss of biodiversity. If the current rates of deforestation and clearing patterns continue, many tropical moist forests could face an imminent regime shift towards an alternative tropical scrubland ecosystem state (Lovejoy and Nobre 2018). Over the last several months of 2019, there was a surge of headline news by global media of widespread wildfires in the Amazon rainforest, the largest remaining expanse of tropical moist forest on Earth. Smoke from Amazon fires, visible from space, engulfed cities thousands of kilometers away, including São Paulo, the largest South American city, which plunged into darkness at 3 pm on 19 August 2019. The long-term socioeconomic and environmental impacts of such fires could potentially be severe, not only in regards to the amount of particulate matter released into the atmosphere, but also contributing toward massive carbon dioxide emissions from fires. These will threaten biodiversity in one of the most megadiverse regions of the world, causing negative impacts on human health, and immense economic damage (de Mendonça et al 2004, Aragão et al 2018, Smith 2019, Brancalion et al 2020). Given these social and ecological losses, the ultimate reason behind the widespread fires in the Amazonian rainforest has become a focus of public inquiries. In the vacuum created by a lack of scientific assessments, contrasting narratives and polarized opinions have proliferated. Considering the fact that the doubling of fire incidence in August―the peak fire month in 2019―relative to the average August fire incidence over the last decade was not influenced by severe droughts or other climatic anomalies (Barlow et al 2020, Kelley et al 2020), what caused the 2019 Amazon fires anomaly?.
Fil: Cardil, Adrián. Technosylva Inc; Estados Unidos. Centre Tecnológic Forestal de Catalunya; España. Universidad de Lleida; España
Fil: de Miguel, Sergio Ruben. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Lleida; España. Centre Tecnológic Forestal de Catalunya; España
Fil: Silva, Carlos A.. University of Florida; Estados Unidos. University of Maryland; Estados Unidos
Fil: Reich, Peter B.. University of Minnesota; Estados Unidos. University of Western Sydney; Australia
Fil: Calkin, David. Rocky Mountain Research Station; Estados Unidos
Fil: Brancalion, Pedro H.S.. Universidade de Sao Paulo; Brasil
Fil: Vibrans, Alexander C.. Universidade Regional de Blumenau; Brasil
Fil: Gamarra, Javier G.P.. International Consultant On Forestry Statistics; Italia
Fil: Zhou, M.. Purdue University; Estados Unidos
Fil: Pijanowski, Bryan C.. Purdue University; Estados Unidos
Fil: Hui, Cang. STELLENBOSCH UNIVERSITY (SUN);
Fil: Crowther, Thomas W.. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich; Suiza
Fil: Hérault, Bruno. Forêts Et Sociétés; Costa de Marfil. Institut National Polytechnique Félix Houphouet-boigny; Costa de Marfil. Université Montpellier II; Francia
Fil: Piotto, Daniel. Universidade Federal do Sul da Bahia; Brasil
Fil: Salas-Eljatib, Christian. Universidad de La Frontera; Chile. Universidad Mayor; Chile
Fil: Broadbent, Eben North. University of Florida; Estados Unidos
Fil: Almeyda Zambrano, Angelica M.. University of Florida; Estados Unidos
Fil: Picard, Nicolas. Center Gip Ecofor; Francia
Fil: Aragao, Luiz E.O.C.. University of Exeter; Reino Unido. Centro de Previsao de Tempo e Estudos Climáticos. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais; Brasil
Fil: Bastin, Jean Francois. Université de Liège; Bélgica
Fil: Routh, Devin. STELLENBOSCH UNIVERSITY (SUN);
Fil: Van Den Hoogen, Johan. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich; Suiza
Fil: Peri, Pablo Luis. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro Regional Buenos Aires; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina
Fil: Liang, Jingjing. Purdue University; Estados Unidos