Abstract
The forest fires of 2019 were among the most devastating ever recorded in Bolivia. In this study we analyze the relationship between forest fragmentation and meteorological drought with the spatial distribution of forest fires during that year in the Department of Santa Cruz, Bolivia. We carried out a classification of the natural vegetation using Landsat 8 satellite imagery. Forest fragmentation was defined according to the distribution of forest patch sizes and classified using seven categories; furthermore, distance to anthropogenically used areas and forest edges was quantified. Spatial patterns of meteorological drought severity were quantified using long-term series of precipitation and reference evapotranspiration. Areas burned during 2019 (July–December) were characterized by means of spectral indices (normalized burn ratio (NBR) and normalized delta burn ratio (dNBR)) and unsupervised classification methods (interactive self-organizing data analysis algorithm (ISODATA)). The results show that 61.9% of the total area burned occurred in large (>2,000,000 ha), relatively unfragmented patches. However, the highest proportion of fires (17.1%) occurred in relatively small patches (<20 ha). In addition, anthropogenically used zones and forest edges were most impacted by forest fires. Finally, the spatial patterns of drought severity also influenced the severity of forest fires.
Highlights
Fragmentation of natural forest cover generates significant biodiversity loss and negatively affects ecosystem functioning [1]
Forest edges show high tree mortality, while fragmented forests are more susceptible to the occurrence of fires due to the edge effect [7,13,57,58,59,60]. This would explain that in the Santa Cruz region we have found that distances of less than 500 m to the forest edge show a higher percentage impacted by forest fires (71%)
The present state of the forests in the Department of Santa Cruz is worrisome since there is evidence that the fragmentation of the forests in combination with the droughts, in abundance of anthropogenic ignition sources, causes the fire to progressively expand towards the interior of the forest
Summary
Fragmentation of natural forest cover generates significant biodiversity loss and negatively affects ecosystem functioning [1]. In addition to their fragmentation, are one of the main factors driving the degradation of tropical forests, especially in dry years when these regions become a net source of carbon [2]. In South America, a significant increase in forest fires and burning activity has been detected during the period 2001–2018, and in 2019 a severe fire crisis was recorded, strongly linked to deforestation and forest degradation [3]. Forest edges are close to potential ignition sources in regions managed for agricultural and livestock uses [5,14]
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