Improving the spatial‐temporal analysis of Amazonian fires

Published in Global Change Biology 27(3)
Authors

Erika Berenguer, Nathália Carvalho, Liana O. Anderson, Luiz E. O. C. Aragão, Filipe França, Jos Barlow
Publication year 2020
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15425
Affiliations
  • Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
  • Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK.
  • Remote Sensing Division, National Institute for Space Research, São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil.
  • National Center for Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters, São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil.
  • College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.
IAI Program
  • the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NE/S01084X/1),
  • BNP Paribas Foundation (Climate and Biodiversity Initiative),
  • MAP-FIRE (IAI-SGP-HW 016),
  • CARBAM (FAPESP 2016/02018-2),
  • the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq 305054/2016-3, 140379/2018-5),
  • the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP 18/15001-6)
IAI Project SGP-HW 016
Keywords
fieres
deforestation
subject
interest
research
support
list vegetation
PDFImproving the spatial-temporal analysis of Amazonian fires.pdf

Abstract

There is a growing interest in Amazonian fires, accompanied by a substantial increase in research in the subject. Here, we list five common misunderstandings about Amazonian climate, vegetation, fires and the deforestation process to help to support future research.
Amazonian fires have been of great scientific and political concern in recent years, as they indicate changes in environmental governance, altered environmental conditions, and lie at the interface of climate and land-use changes&mdashtwo of the dominant stressors in tropical environments (Barlow et al., 2018). Research on complex socio-environmental systems, such as the Amazon, is crucial to inform more effective decision making. With this in mind, we were concerned that recent papers&mdashincluding that of Xu et al. (2020) in this journal&mdashhave failed to contemplate critical nuances that underpin Amazonian fires, leading to flawed results. In the interest of supporting science that is more informative, we outline five key features of the Amazon that need to be considered when analyzing spatial-temporal patterns of fires.