Spatio-temporal distribution of fire activity in protected areas of Sub-Saharan Africa derived from MODIS data

Abstract

Fire is a key component of the African savannas. Because of its ecological role in controlling vegetation patterns park managers use fire to promote habitat diversity. We analyzed the spatio-temporal distribution looking at the fire occurrence and intensity. We considered nearly 750 African protected areas (PAs) and their 25km buffers. We based our analysis on the MODIS active fire product using the Fire Radiative Power (FRP) to study the fire intensity. Our results showed similar fire densities in the PAs and their buffers, but a higher fire intensity inside the protected areas. Mid or late season fires prevailed with higher FRP than the early fires. The average FRP in the PAs ranged between 10MW and 400MW during the whole dry season, with an average of 50MW over all PAs. The ‘Shrubland’ and ‘Grassland’ land-covers registered the highest FRP values.