Forest Burning Research Articles

A 5,000-year vegetation and fire history for tierra firme forests in the Medio Putumayo-Algodón watersheds, northeastern Peru

This paper addresses an important debate in Amazonian studies; namely, the scale, intensity, and nature of human modification of the forests in prehistory. Phytolith and charcoal analysis of terrestrial soils underneath mature tierra firme (nonflooded, nonriverine) forests in the remote Medio Putumayo-Algodón watersheds, northeastern Peru, provide a vegetation and fire history spanning at least the past 5,000 y. A tree inventory carried out in the region enables calibration of ancient phytolith records with standing vegetation and estimates of palm species densities on the landscape through time. Phytolith records show no evidence for forest clearing or agriculture with major annual seed and root crops. Frequencies of important economic palms such as Oenocarpus, Euterpe, Bactris, and Astrocaryum spp., some of which contain hyperdominant species in the modern flora, do not increase through prehistoric time. This indicates pre-Columbian occupations, if documented in the region with future research, did not significantly increase the abundance of those species through management or cultivation. Phytoliths from other arboreal and woody species similarly reflect a stable forest structure and diversity throughout the records. Charcoal 14C dates evidence local forest burning between ca. 2,800 and 1,400 y ago. Our data support previous research indicating that considerable areas of some Amazonian tierra firme forests were not significantly impacted by human activities during the prehistoric era. Rather, it appears that over the last 5,000 y, indigenous populations in this region coexisted with, and helped maintain, large expanses of relatively unmodified forest, as they continue to do today.

Tumbuh-Tumbuhan Ubatan Dalam Hadith Tersenarai Kini Sebagai Terancam: Kajian Intertekstual Klasik-Data Saintifik

Medicinal plants have been used traditionally for thousands of years and gain their place today as pharmaceuticals in the medical industry. The medicinal value makes them the most important resource to human being as early as in the ancient time, and as well were used in perfumery until the golden age of Islam. However, today some of them face the threat of extinction due to lack of awareness in forms of uncontrolled use, logging and forest burning. As an initiative to delve into the deep, this study conducts an intertextual approach to interconnect between classical Arabic texts and contemporary sources. This study focuses on plants mentioned in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhāriy in terms of risk of extinction listed by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). As a result, this study found that there are a total of five species categorized in the list. Two of them are critically endangered which is at a high risk of extinction and another two are vulnerable and a species is least concern which is low risk of extinction. This study recommends creating of awareness to the community about the values and benefits of plants that are useful to human, as well as responsibility of doing conservation to maintain its sustainability for future generations.

Fuel load, stand structure, and understory species composition following prescribed fire in an old-growth coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) forest

BackgroundWith the prevalence of catastrophic wildfire increasing in response to widespread fire suppression and climate change, land managers have sought methods to increase the resiliency of landscapes to fire. The application of prescribed burning in ecosystems adapted to fire can reduce fuel load and fire potential while minimizing impacts to the ecosystem as a whole. Coast redwood forests have historically experienced fire from both natural and anthropogenic sources, and are likely to respond favorably to its reintroduction.ResultsRandom sampling was conducted in three burned sites and in three unburned sites, in an old-growth coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens [D. Don] Endl.) forest. Data were collected on fuel, forest structure, and understory species composition and compared between treatments. Downed woody fuel, duff depth, litter depth, and density of live woody fuels were found to be significantly lower on sites treated with fire compared to unburned sites. Density of the dominant overstory canopy species, coast redwood and Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii [Mirb.] Franco), remained consistent between treatments, and the abundance of herbaceous understory plant species was not significantly altered by burning. In addition, both downed woody fuel and live fuel measures were positively correlated with time since last burn, with the lowest measures on the most recently burned sites.ConclusionsOur results indicated that the use of prescribed burning in old-growth redwood forests can provide beneficial reductions in live and dead surface fuels with minimal impacts to overstory trees and understory herbaceous species.

High-resolution records of anthropogenic activity and geohazards from the reservoir of Sun Moon Lake, Central Taiwan

Sun Moon Lake is the first dam reservoir constructed in Taiwan with the capability of generating hydroelectricity satisfying the whole Taiwan need during the Japanese colonial period since 1934 CE. Now, the Sun Moon Lake is one of the biggest hydropower stations in Taiwan and has become an important touring area. During World War II (1944–1945 CE), the hydroelectric power plant at Sun Moon Lake was bombed by the U.S. air force, which caused severe damage to the dam structure. More recently, the dam structure was also damaged during the 1999 CE Chi-Chi earthquake whose epicenter is nearby in the Nantou County. A suite of cores were taken from both Sun Lake and Moon Lake, and two selected cores, Sun 2–1 and SM 16 4–3, from Sun Lake were detailed studied with multiple analyses, including X-ray imaging, magnetic susceptibility, visible spectrophotometry, X-ray fluorescence (XRF) scanning, and mineral analysis. We discovered that the increase of Ca content in the sediments not only clearly indicates when the dam was constructed at Sun Moon Lake but also records evidence of structure repairs after both the World War II bombing and the Chi-Chi earthquake. Additionally, the yellow turbidite, X-ray image, and low-Ca signals in Core Sun 2–1 strongly correlate to the typhoon events that caused severe floods in the watershed of Zhuoshui River. The turbidite layers caused by the 1963 Gloria Typhoon are also characterized by conspicuous high peak of Fe/Mn in both cores. This study shows that XRF scanning results are useful for recognition of human activity and for high precipitation event correlation. Moreover, the appearance of charcoal layers shows evidence of forest burning and slash-and-burn activities by humans during the past 4,000 years back to the Middle Neolithic Age.

Effect of forest fire on soil microbial biomass and enzymatic activity in oak and pine forests of Uttarakhand Himalaya, India

BackgroundForest fire incidences in the Himalayan region of Uttarakhand, India are very common in summers. Pine and oak are the principal and dominant species of Himalayan subtropical forest and Himalayan temperate forest, respectively. Forest vegetation influences the physicochemical and biological properties of soil and forest fire in pine and oak forests may have a different effect on the physicochemical and biological properties of soil. Therefore, the present study was carried out to assess the impact of forest fire on soil microbial properties, enzymatic activity, and their relationship with soil physicochemical properties in the advent of forest fire in the pine and oak forests of the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand Himalaya, India.ResultsThe soil microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen, soil basal respiration, and acid phosphatase activity decreased, whereas dehydrogenase activity increased at burnt sites of both forest types. The overall change in soil microbial biomass carbon was 63 and 40% at the burnt oak forest and burnt pine forest, respectively. Dehydrogenase activity and acid phosphatase activity showed a strong positive correlation with soil organic matter (r = 0.8) and microbial indices, respectively. The ratio of soil microbial biomass carbon/nitrogen was reduced at burnt sites of both forest types. Factor analysis results showed that fire had a significant impact on soil characteristics. The soil basal respiration was linked with macro- and micronutrients at burnt sites, whereas at control sites, it was linked with physicochemical properties of soil along with nutrients.ConclusionForest fire had a significant impact on soil properties of both forest types. The impact of forest fire on soil microbial biomass carbon was stronger in the oak forest than in the pine forest. Forest type influenced soil enzymatic activity at burnt sites. The bacterial community was dominated over fungi in burnt sites of both forests. Soil microbial indices can be used as a selective measure to assess the impact of fire. Furthermore, forest type plays an important role in regulating the impact of forest fire on soil properties.

Cycles of Fire? Politics and Forest Burning in Indonesia

This paper examines the link between electoral incentives and environmental degradation by exploiting a satellite dataset on 107,000 forest fires and 879 asynchronous district elections in Indonesia. Fires represent a cheap but illegal means of converting forested land to other uses, but they risk burning out of control and creating substantial negative environmental externalities. We find a significant electoral cycle in forest fires. Ignitions and area burned decline during election years but steeply increase in the year after. The results suggest that politicians may suppress this activity at times when it might particularly dent their electoral chances.

ISLAM DAN LINGKUNGAN HIDUP: MENAKAR RELASI KEDUANYA

The environment is a global problem, in fact it is a humanitarian problem that is so complex that it is handled collectively. Population pollution is getting denser and more crowded coupled with limited natural resources and even the influence of digital media, modern technology which is often used for profit and even exploiting natural resources for personal or group gain, thus reducing the quality of nature. Islam has strong teachings about ethics towards the environment, very devastating events have often been experienced lately, namely floods, illegal logging, forest burning and the most existing ones until now are the Covid-19 epidemic, of course we realize that the impact of These incidents are very disturbing to the sustainability of the human environment. "Besides that, a number of other forms of environmental damage must be a very valuable lesson." Humans have an important influence in the sustainability of the ecosystem and human habitat itself, the actions taken or policies. about the relationship with the environment is clearly very influential for a good environment and human life itself. ”Normatively, religion calls on all humans to preserve and have ethics towards the environment, the relationship between the two is harmonious.

Changes in water‐soluble nitrogen and organic carbon in the post‐fire litter layer of Dahurian larch forests

Boreal forests account for one third of terrestrial carbon stock. Wildfires are an important perturbation of this carbon pool, affecting in particular the litter layer. After forest fires, the litter layers may possess shifting chemical property and decomposition dynamics due to the changes in post-fire vegetations succession and abiotic factors. We measured water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) and water-soluble nitrogen (WSN) in the litter layers of Oi and Oe horizons in boreal forests along a gradient of fire history in northeastern China. We found that WSOC and WSN concentrations in the Oi layer were higher than those in the Oe layer. The concentrations were markedly altered by fires and showed different responses to the ecological succession. The time since fire had significant positive correlations with WSOC in Oi and Oe layers. Interestingly, the distance-based redundancy analysis and the structural equation model analysis indicated that factors additional to the time since fire also strongly influenced the litter water-soluble matter (WSM) properties. Biotic factors were more strongly correlated with the litter WSM properties in the Oe layer than in the Oi layer. Although biotic factors contributed less than abiotic factors to the WSM properties, they still play significant roles in litter WSM in burned area. Our results show that manipulating biotic factors can be an important management strategy for litter WSM restoration, which can assist the overall ecological restoration in burned forests faced with the increasing danger of wildfires in the changing global climate.

DOMINANCE, ASSOCIATION AND DISTRIBUTION PATTERN OF TREE SPECIES IN BURNT FOREST IN EAST KALIMANTAN

Repeated forest fires have high impact on species’ composition. Pioneer species colonize the burnt forest and develop widely up to 30 years after a fire but late-succession species regenerate gradually or even disappear owing to direct impact of fires or other ecological consequences related to fires. Forest restoration through assisted natural regeneration needs information about the state of species’ composition after fire. Species’ dominance is a species’ composition indicator used in this research, with additional information on species’ association and distribution patterns, to understand tree species’ composition after repeated fires. A 1.8-hectare plot divided into 10 x 10 m sub-plots was established in secondary forest in Samboja Research Forest, East Kalimantan. The plot sample was burnt in 1982/1983 and 1997/1998. All trees above 10 cm DBH were measured; leaf specimens were collected for species’ identification at the Herbarium Bogoriense, Cibinong, West Java. For comparison, we used 1981 data observed by the Indonesian Institute of Science, published by Kartawinata et al 2008. The Importance Value Index was used in the data analysis to express species’ dominance. A 2x2 matrix based on presence-absence of species for each sub-plot was used to analyse the association index among species. Variance and average value ratio of certain species present in each sub-plot was expressed in a dispersion index. A chi-square was used to test the significance of the association and dispersion index. Thirteen years after a second fire, pioneer species of Macaranga gigantea were most dominant, followed by Vernonia arborea, a sub-climax species. This indicated that the forest was in an early succession process. Pholidocarpus majadun was consistently dominant before and after the fire. We found 38 pairs of species significantly positively associated and 4801 pairs negatively associated. About 60% species’ association, both negatively and positively, occurred between ‘native species’ (species that exist befores burnt) and ‘non-native species’ (new comer species regenerated after burnt) in the plot sample. A non-native species, Vernonia arborea, associated negatively with the non-native species Tabernaemontana sphaerocarpa, and native species, Oncosperma horridum, Palaquium dasyphyllum and Endiandra rubescens. The distribution pattern of four native species—Artocarpus anisophyllus, Cananga odorata, Croton laevifolius and Macaranga gigantea—changed after repeated fires, from uniform to clumped.

Sediment source apportionment following wildfire in an upland commercial forest catchment

Wildfires can have major impacts on water scarcity and water quality linked to off-site transfer of polluting ash and nutrients. Understanding sediment sources in burnt landscapes can help to develop mitigation strategies, especially in catchments planted with introduced species that are prone to fire. We investigated sediment sources activated by post-fire rainfall in a small-forested catchment that was impacted by a severe wildfire. The aim was to use environmental radionuclides and elemental geochemistry as tracers to apportion sediment sources within burnt plantation systems. Surficial (0–2 cm) topsoil (n = 9), sub-surficial (2–4 cm) topsoil (i.e. below the burnt layer; n = 8) samples from burnt hillslopes and forest roads (n = 5) and stream banks (n = 5) soil samples were taken in the Quivolgo catchment, El Maule region, Chile. Sediment samples (n = 9) were collected from behind a v-notched weir on three dates after the fire: May 2017, July 2017 and October 2017. Soil and sediment samples were analysed by gamma spectrometry and wavelength-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WD-XRF) used to obtain tracer properties. These were evaluated visually and statistically to identify potential non-conservative tracers. Sediment apportionment was undertaken using the MixSIAR mixing model. The tracer selection procedure resulted in ten tracers being used for sediment apportionment. Tracer suitability was based on (i) weak and non-significant linear relationship between tracer concentrations and specific surface area (SSA) and soil organic matter (SOM), and (ii) conservative behaviour supported by the inclusion of sediment samples within source convex hull. Sediments from sub-surface layer (2–4 cm) were the dominant source during the first two periods contributing 55 ± 11 and 78 ± 10% respectively, whereas road contribution was only important in the last period (71 ± 14%). Apportionment showed a shift in sediment source (i.e. from forest roads to hillslopes) compared to a previous study in the same catchment before wildfire. The main driver of erosion was attributed to overland flow convergence and consequent rill erosion across burnt hillslopes. The study demonstrated combined use of environmental radionuclides with elemental geochemistry for sediment apportionment within burnt forest plantations and highlighted a switch in predominant source (e.g. sub-surface burnt soil) activated by post-fire rainfall events. The findings in this research will help forest companies to develop strategies to reduce off-site impacts of sediment release after wildfire in forest plantations.

Assessing the WEPP model performance for predicting daily runoff in three terrestrial ecosystems in western Syria

Soil erosion is one of the main threats facing the agriculture and natural resources sector all over the world, and the same is true for Syria. Several empirical and physically based tools have been proposed to assess erosion induced soil losses and runoff driving the processes, from plot to regional spatial scales. The main goal of this research is to evaluate the performance of the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model in predicting runoff in comparison with field experiments in the Al-Sabahia region of Western Syria in three ecosystems: agricultural lands (AG), burned forest (BF) and forest (FO). To achieve this, field experimental plots (2∗1.65∗0.5 m) were prepared to obtain runoff observation data between September 2012 and December 2013. In addition, the input data (atmospheric forcing, soil, slope, land management) were prepared to run the WEPP model to estimate the runoff. The results indicate that the average observed runoffs in the AG, BF and FO were 12.54 ± 1.17, 4.81 ± 0.97 and 1.72 ± 0.16 mm/event, respectively, while the simulated runoffs in the AG, BF and FO were 15.15 ± 0.89, 9.23 ± 1.48 and 2.61 ± 0.47mm/event, respectively. The statistical evaluation of the model's performance showed an unsatisfactory performance of the WEPP model for predicting the run-offs in the study area. This may be caused by the structural flaws in the model, and/or the insufficient site-specific input parameters. So, to achieve good performance and reliable results of the WEPP model, more observation data is required from different ecosystems in Syria. These findings can provide guidance to planners and environmental engineers for proposing environmental protection and water resources management plans in the Coastal Region in Syria.

PENDEKATAN SOSIO-ECO-RELIGIO-CULTURE DALAM MENANGGULANGI KEBAKARAN HUTAN DAN LAHAN

This paper aims: 1. To analyze the factors that cause forest and land fires that often occur throughout the year 2. To analyze the impact of forest and land fires using the Socio-Eco-Religio-Culture approach 3. To provide solutions to the impact of forest and land fires using the Socio- Eco-Religio- Culture approach. The method used is Qualitative Research using Grounded Theory. The results showed: 1. The causes of forest fires also occurred due to several factors, including the existence of investors and communities who cleared land for oil palm, rubber and other plantations by burning forests, extreme weather, peat areas, weak governance from the government, ignorance of local wisdom, indecisive law enforcement agencies. 2. The most severe impact felt by many parties as a result of these fires is smoke haze pollution that disturbs various aspects of life. The disruption of human activities due to forest fires can also affect productivity and income. 3. In making development policies to prevent forest fires, the anthropocentric perspective that exploits many ecological, economic, social, religious and cultural values must be changed to the Socio- Eco-Religio- Culture perspective. It is necessary to reform law enforcement in the management of deep forest fires and create a legal umbrella for preventing and overcoming forest and land outbreaks. It is necessary to socialize the values of the Socio- Eco-Religio- Culture to policy makers, students from an early age to higher education for forest fire prevention. It is necessary to implement a socio-eco-religio-culture approach in making policies to control forest and land fires.

Environmental Maintenance through the Application of Adat (Criminal) Sanctions on Baduy Communities

This article aims to describe the implementation of customary criminal sanctions used by the Baduycommunity in maintaining and preserving their nature and the effectiveness of the use of customarysanctions in preventing and overcoming actions that damage the environment of the Baduy community. Itis a qualitative research to produce descriptive data, where the approach used is socio-legal research usingsecondary data as a normative or doctrinal approach, and uses a social approach to explore primary data inthe form of values and interpret the behavior of local communities in solving customary cases. The resultsof this study indicate that the life of the Baduy community which is supported by agriculture and cultivationis very dependent on natural preservation. The maintenance and preservation of the environment in theBaduy community is highly respected. Various ways to preserve nature through avoidance of goods andmodern lifestyle are carried out from generation to generation so as not to change the order of nature and theenvironment. In preserving nature, the Baduy community provides guidelines on certain actions that theirindigenous people should not take, such as burning forests, cutting trees in certain areas.

Juvenile survival of a burned forest specialist in response to variation in fire characteristics

Pyrodiversity, defined as variation in fire history and characteristics, has been shown to catalyse post-fire biodiversity in a variety of systems. However, the demographic and behavioural mechanisms driving the responses of individual species to pyrodiversity remain largely unexplored. We used a model post-fire specialist, the black-backed woodpecker (Picoides arcticus), to examine the relationship between fire characteristics and juvenile survival while controlling for confounding factors. We radio-tracked fledgling black-backed woodpeckers in burned forests of California and Washington, USA, and derived information on habitat characteristics using ground surveys and satellite data. We used hierarchical Bayesian mixed-effects models to determine the factors that influence both fledgling and annual juvenile survival, and we tested for effects of fledgling age on movement rates. Burn severity strongly affected fledgling survival, with lower survival in patches created by high-severity fire compared to patches burned at medium to low severity or left unburned. Time since leaving the nest was also a strong predictor of fledgling survival, annual juvenile survival and fledgling movement rates. Our results support the role of habitat complementation in generating species-specific benefits from variation in spatial fire characteristics-one axis of pyrodiversity-and highlight the importance of this variation under shifting fire regimes. High-severity fire provides foraging and nesting sites that support the needs of adult black-backed woodpeckers, but fledgling survival is greater in areas burned at lower severity. By linking breeding and foraging habitat with neighbouring areas of reduced predation risk, pyrodiversity may enhance the survival and persistence of animals that thrive in post-fire habitat.

Carbon balance of tropical peat forests at different fire history and implications for carbon emissions.

Accurate assessment of tropical peat forest carbon stocks and impact of fires on carbon pools is required to determine the magnitude of emissions to the atmosphere and to support emissions reduction policies. We assessed total aboveground carbon (AGC) in biomass pools including trees, shrubs, deadwood, litter and char, and peat carbon to develop empirical estimates of peat swamp forest carbon stocks in response to fire and disturbance. In contrast to the common assumption that peat fires combust all AGC, we observed that about half of undisturbed forest AGC, equivalent to about 70Mg C ha-1, remains after one or two recent fires - mainly in dead trees, woody debris and pyrogenic carbon. Both recently burnt and repeatedly burnt peat forests store similar amounts of carbon in the top 10cm of peat when compared with undisturbed forests (70Mg C ha-1), mainly due to increased peat bulk density after fires that compensates for their lower peat C%. The proportion of fuel mass consumed in fire, or combustion factor (CF), is required to make accurate estimates of peat fire emissions for both AGC and peat carbon. This study estimated a CF for AGC (CFAGC) of 0.56, comparable to the default value of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This study estimated a varying CF for peat (CFPEAT) that ranged from 0.4 to 0.68 as depth of burn increased. This revised CFPEAT is one third to one half of the IPCC default value of 1.0. The current assumption of complete combustion of peat (CF=1.0) is widely acknowledged in the literature as oversimplification and is not supported by our field observations or data. This study provides novel empirical data to improve estimates of peat forests carbon stocks and emissions from tropical peat fires.

White-Sand Savannas Expand at the Core of the Amazon After Forest Wildfires

Across the tropics, climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of wildfires, exposing tropical forests to the risk of shifting into an open vegetation state. A recent satellite analysis of the Amazon basin suggests this might happen first in floodplains where forests are particularly fragile. We studied floodplain landscapes of the middle Rio Negro, covering ~ 4100 km2 at the Central Amazon region, where forest ecosystems are dominant. We used Landsat images to map 40 years of wildfire history and test the hypothesis that repeatedly burnt forests fail to regenerate and can be replaced by white-sand savanna ecosystems. In the field, using a chronosequence of ‘time after the first fire’, we assessed changes in tree species composition, herbaceous cover and topsoil properties. Here we show that when these forests are repeatedly disturbed by wildfires, their soil gradually loses clay and nutrients and becomes increasingly sandy. In synchrony, native herbaceous cover expands, forest tree species disappear and white-sand savanna tree species become dominant. This drastic ecosystem shift happened within 40 years, likely accelerated by topsoil erosion. When recurrent fires maintain floodplain forests in an open vegetation state, topsoil erosion intensifies, transforming clay-rich soils into white-sand soils that may favour savanna tree species. Our findings reveal that white-sand savannas may expand through seasonally flooded ecosystems at the core of the Amazon, facilitated by wildfires.

Soil-vegetation relationships in Mediterranean forests after fire

BackgroundWildfires are one of the major environmental concerns in Mediterranean ecosystems. Thus, many studies have addressed wildfire impacts on soil and vegetation in Mediterranean forests, but the linkages between these ecosystem compartments after fire are not well understood. The aim of this work is to analyze soil-vegetation relationships in Mediterranean burned forests as well as the consistency of these relationships among forests with different environmental conditions, at different times after fire, and among vegetation with different functional traits.ResultsOur results indicate that study site conditions play an important role in mediating soil-vegetation relationships. Likewise, we found that the nature of soil-vegetation relationships may vary over time as fire effects are less dominant in both ecosystem compartments. Despite this, we detected several common soil-vegetation relationships among study sites and times after fire. For instance, our results revealed that available P content and stoichiometry (C:P and N:P) were closely linked to vegetation growth, and particularly to the growth of trees. We found that enzymatic activities and microbial biomass were inversely related to vegetation growth rates, whereas the specific activities of soil enzymes were higher in the areas with more vegetation height and cover. Likewise, our results suggest that resprouters may influence soil properties more than seeders, the growth of seeders being more dependent on soil status.ConclusionsWe provide pioneer insights into how vegetation is influenced by soil, and vice-versa, in Mediterranean burned areas. Our results reflect variability in soil-vegetation relationships among study sites and time after fire, but consistent patterns between soil properties and vegetation were also detected. Our research is highly relevant to advance in forest science and could be useful to achieve efficient post-fire management.

The Kalimantan Forest Fires: An Actor Analysis Based on Supreme Court Documents in Indonesia

Forest fires in Indonesia are of a local, national, and global concern, which is why the activities of local actors have emerged as a new problem in Indonesia, especially in Kalimantan. The current study employed a network content analysis method to examine the involvement of actors in forest fire cases based on Supreme Court decisions, complemented by several reputable online news sources such as kompas.com, detik.com, and tribun.com. By examining the cases, the actors involved were able to be identified as key actors, contest setters, and subject actors. Key actors, referring to companies and landowners, were found to have high correlations between one another. Moreover, key actors were observed to be involved in providing funds for land clearing or burning, yet they remained legally untouchable. Meanwhile, contest setters—permanent employees—were found to be the most involved in land burning/clearing, and they were often convicted in the Supreme Court rulings as they were merely commoners, farmers, and jobseekers in need of cash. Nevertheless, the subject actors, i.e., jobseekers and farm workers, were seen to have a weak relationship with key actors in the Supreme Court rulings, particularly in terms of forest burning and its operational funding.

A pilot study into ecological burning in forests as part of a species conservation plan

Abstract. Pearson MW. 2021. A pilot study into ecological burning in forests as part of a species conservation plan. Biodiversitas 22: 1296-1303. Fire management and the process of managing communities has become an increasingly topical subject due to recent events. The role of fire for fuel reduction with areas set aside for conservation may not be compatible as a seed recruitment tool for Allocasuarina robusta. Presently, fire as a recruitment tool on A. robusta is not well understood. The pilot study aims to examine the latent seedbank ability to contribute to the conservation of A. robusta when ecological burning is part of a fire management plan. The investigation examined the soil seed bank beneath A. robusta before and after an ecological burn as a greenhouse experiment. The experiment results demonstrated that a diverse range of species responds to a fire that may out-compete the seed recruitment from A. robusta. The results indicate that A. robusta may not be recruiting through seed. Competition appears to be a factor that may limit the ability of A. robusta to recruit from seed.

Temporal patterns of remote-sensed tropospheric carbon dioxide and methane over an urban site in Malawi, Southeast Africa: Implications for climate effects

Carbon dioxide (CO2) and Methane (CH4) are considered the most crucial climate forcing greenhouse gases due to their significant impacts on climate systems. The present study is aimed at analyzing the long-term (2004–2016) concentration patterns of CO2 and CH4 over Malawi located in Southeast Africa using the observations from Atmospheric Infrared Sounding (AIRS). The study found an annual increase concentration of CO2 and CH4, with a rate of 7.08% and 1.66%, respectively; whereas, the respective concentration levels of CO2 and CH4 in 2016 were noted as >400 ppm and >750 ppb, which is comparable to that reported by IPCC (2014) over the globe. The monthly and seasonal analyses revealed that high patterns are associated with biomass burning season, changes in vegetation cover, and long-range transport. The two trace gases were seasonally correlated with carbon-containing compounds produced from incomplete combustion and biomass burning. The trace gases and pollutants are emitted from the burning of crop residues during the harvesting season, besides, open burning of forests and vehicular emissions. The present study also detected a seasonal increase in CO2 and CH4 concentrations during JJA and SON seasons. The temperature (T °C) exhibited profound correlation with CO2 (r = 0.75, p < 0.01) and CH4 (r = 0.80, p < 0.01) during the pollution peak season of SON. Moreover, CO2 and CH4 showed significant positive correlation with cloud top temperature (r = 0.56, p < 0.05 and r = 0.74, p < 0.01, respectively) and negative correlation with cloud fraction (r = −0.55, p < 0.05 and r = −0.69, p < 0.01, respectively) during SON, imply extensive climatic effect by the trace gases during high pollution season. The backward air mass trajectories divulge a contribution of distant produced pollutants from neighboring Mozambique, Madagascar Islands, and the South American continent. The major sinks of tropospheric CO2 and CH4 observed from the present study are precipitation and vegetation.