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Effects of fire on above-ground forest biomass in the northern Brazilian Amazon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 November 2012

Flora da Silva Ramos Vieira Martins ,
Haron Abrahim Magalhães Xaud ,
João Roberto dos Santos  and
Lênio Soares Galvão
Flora da Silva Ramos Vieira Martins*
Affiliation:
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE), Divisão de Sensoriamento Remoto (DSR), Av. dos Astronautas 1758, CEP: 12227-010, São José dos Campos (SP), Brazil
Haron Abrahim Magalhães Xaud
Affiliation:
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE), Divisão de Sensoriamento Remoto (DSR), Av. dos Astronautas 1758, CEP: 12227-010, São José dos Campos (SP), Brazil Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária – Embrapa Roraima, BR-174, km 8, Distrito Industrial, CEP 69.301-970 – Boa Vista RR, Brazil
João Roberto dos Santos
Affiliation:
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE), Divisão de Sensoriamento Remoto (DSR), Av. dos Astronautas 1758, CEP: 12227-010, São José dos Campos (SP), Brazil
Lênio Soares Galvão
Affiliation:
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE), Divisão de Sensoriamento Remoto (DSR), Av. dos Astronautas 1758, CEP: 12227-010, São José dos Campos (SP), Brazil
*
1Corresponding author. Email: flora@florestal.eng.br
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Abstract:

Fires can significantly affect the structure, floristic composition and biomass content of tropical forests, which are not adapted to this disturbance. To assess the impact of understorey fires on above-ground biomass, this study was conducted in the northern Brazilian Amazon (Roraima state), where uncontrolled forest fires are recurrent. Fifty plots (0.25 ha each) distributed across five fire disturbance classes were inventoried. Losses in biomass stocks were significant (−57% and −63%) for forests that suffered from recurrent fires and progressively occurred until some point between 3 and 7 y after the last fire, as deduced from previous studies. Twelve years after a fire event, biomass stocks were reconstituted, although differences in the floristic composition were associated with greater fire severity, particularly driven by the dominance of the Cecropia spp. In thrice-burned forests, live biomass reached levels of secondary forests of the same region. For large trees (> 50 cm dbh), the reduction (−54%) in biomass was significant in thrice-burned areas. These findings highlight the threat that fires represent for tropical rain forests and emphasise the need for long-term surveys in order to distinguish between the effects of fire severity, fire frequency and time-since-fire artefact.

Keywords

above-ground biomassAmazoncarbon emissionsforest firetropical rain forest
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 28 , Issue 6 , November 2012 , pp. 591 - 601
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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References

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