The Implications of Fire Management in the Andean Paramo: A Preliminary Assessment Using Satellite Remote Sensing

Pasquale Borrelli,Sirio Modugno,Panos Panagos,Brigitta Schütt,Dolors Armenteras

doi:10.3390/rs70911061

Abstract

The upper ranges of the northern Andes are characterized by unique Neotropical, high altitude ecosystems known as paramos. These tundra-like grasslands are widely recognized by the scientific community for their biodiversity and their important ecosystem services for the local human population. Despite their remoteness, limited accessibility for humans and waterlogged soils, paramos are highly flammable ecosystems. They are constantly under the influence of seasonal biomass burning mostly caused by humans. Nevertheless, little is known about the spatial extent of these fires, their regime and the resulting ecological impacts. This paper presents a thorough mapping and analysis of the fires in one of the world’s largest paramo, namely the “Complejo de Páramos” of Cruz Verde-Sumapaz in the Eastern mountain range of the Andes (Colombia). Landsat TM/ETM+ and MODIS imagery from 2001 to 2013 was used to map and analyze the spatial distribution of fires and their intra- and inter-annual variability. Moreover, a logistic regression model analysis was undertaken to test the hypothesis that the dynamics of the paramo fires can be related to human pressures. The resulting map shows that the burned paramo areas account for 57,179.8 hectares, of which 50% (28,604.3 hectares) are located within the Sumapaz National Park. The findings show that the fire season mainly occurs from January to March. The accuracy assessment carried out using a confusion matrix based on 20 reference burned areas shows values of 90.1% (producer accuracy) for the mapped burned areas with a Kappa Index of Agreement (KIA) of 0.746. The results of the logistic regression model suggest a significant predictive relevance of the variables road distance (0.55 ROC (receiver operating characteristic)) and slope gradient (0.53 ROC), indicating that the higher the probability of fire occurrence, the smaller the distance to the road and the higher the probability of more gentle slopes. The paper sheds light on fires in the Colombian paramos and provides a solid basis for further investigation of the impacts on the natural ecosystem functions and biodiversity.

Highlights

Fire management practices are part of the traditional land use activities in the high mountains of the Neotropical region [1]
The maintenance of the hydrological and carbon storage functions is essential to ensuring a good water quality to the numerous human communities that depend on the paramo water supply, including the Bogota Metropolitan Area [10,11]
77.4% (44,277.8 ha) of the burned areas was recorded by Landsat imagery, while 21.5% (12,273.4 ha) and 1.1% (628.6) were measured by Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) MOD13Q1 NDVI data and MODIS MCD45A1 (Figure 5)

Summary

Introduction

Fire management practices are part of the traditional land use activities in the high mountains of the Neotropical region [1]. Paramos are extraordinary reservoirs of carbon and contain high levels of organic carbon related to their mineralogical background, climate and elevation and water saturation characteristics These ecosystems play an important role in the global carbon balance with up to 520.9 t C ha−1 in the soil according to reports for belowground organic C found in the undisturbed paramos of the Chingaza National Protected Area in Colombia [11]. For the paramos, these factors are of extremely high ecological, genetic and scientific importance [4]. The maintenance of the hydrological and carbon storage functions is essential to ensuring a good water quality to the numerous human communities that depend on the paramo water supply, including the Bogota Metropolitan Area [10,11]

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Conclusion