Ecological responses to El Niño-induced surface fires in central Brazilian Amazonia: Management implications for flammable tropical forests

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Volumn 359, Issue 1443, 2004, Pages 367-380

  Barlow, Jos ^a   Peres, Carlos A ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Birds; Carbon; Forest biomass; Forest regeneration; Large vertebrates; Phase shift

Indexed keywords

BIOMASS; CARBON; EL NINO; FIRE MANAGEMENT; FOREST MANAGEMENT; LAND USE CHANGE; TROPICAL FOREST;

AMAZONIA; BRAZIL; SOUTH AMERICA;

ANIMALIA; AVES; VERTEBRATA;

EID: 1642332501     PISSN: 09628436     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2003.1423     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (104)

1. Angelsen, A. & Kaimowitz, D. 1999 Agricultural technologies and tropical deforestation. Boston, MA: CAB International.
2. Anon. 1998 The burning of Central America. The Economist 30 May 1998.
3. Barbosa, R. I. & Fearnside, P. M. 1999 Incêndios na Amazonia Brasileira: estimativa da emissão de gases do efeito estufa pela queima de diferentes ecossistemas de Roraima na passagem do evento 'El Niño' (1997/98). Acta Amazon. 29, 513-534.
4. Barlow, J. 2003 Ecological effects of wildfires in a central Amazonian forest. PhD thesis, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
5. Barlow, J. & Peres, C. A. 2004 Avifaunal responses to single and recurrent wildfires in Amazonian forests. Ecol. Appl. 14. (In the press.)
6. Barlow, J., Haugaasen, T. & Peres, C. A. 2002 Effects of ground fires on understorey bird assemblages in Amazonian forests. Biol. Conserv. 105, 157-169.
7. Barlow, J., Peres, C. A., Lagan, B. O. & Haugaasen, T. 2003a Large tree mortality and the decline of forest biomass following Amazonian wildfires. Ecol. Lett. 6, 6-8.
8. Barlow, J., Lagan, B. O. & Peres, C. A. 2003b Morphological correlates of fire-induced tree mortality in a central Amazonian forest. J. Trop. Ecol. 19, 291-299.
9. Basset, Y., Charles, E., Hammond, D. S. & Brown, V. K. 2001 Short-term effects of canopy openness on insect herbivores in a rain forest in Guyana. J. Appl. Ecol. 38, 1045-1058.
10. Berenstain, L. 1986 Responses of long-tailed macaques to drought and fire in eastern Borneo - a preliminary report. Biotropica 18, 257-262.
11. Bierregaard, R. O. & Lovejoy, T. E. 1989 Effects of forest fragmentation on Amazonian understorey bird communities. Acta Amazon. 19, 215-241.
12. Boer, C. 1989 Investigations of the steps needed to rehabilitate the areas of east Kalimantan seriously affected by fire: effects of the forest fires of 1982/83 in east Kalimantan towards wildlife. FR Report no. 7. Deutsche Forest Service/ITTO/GTZ, Samarinda.
13. Boserup, E. 1965 The conditions of agricultural growth. Chicago, IL: Aldine Press.
14. Brown, N. 1998 Out of control: fires and forestry in Indonesia. Trends Ecol. Evol. 13, 41.
15. Carvalho, G., Barros, A. C., Moutinho, P. & Nepstad, D. 2001 Sensitive development could protect Amazonia instead of destroying it. Nature 409, 131.
16. Carvalho, G. O., Nepstad, D., McGrath, D., Diaz, M. D. V., Santilli, M. & Barros, A. C. 2002 Frontier expansion in the Amazon: balancing development and sustainability. Environment 44, 34-45.
17. Chambers, J. Q., dos Santos, J., Ribeiro, R. J. & Higuchi, N. 2001 Tree damage, allometric relationships, and above-ground net primary production in central Amazon forest. Forest. Ecol. Mngmt 152, 73-84.
18. Charles-Dominique, P., Blanc, P., Larpin, D., Ledru, M. P., Riera, B., Sarthou, C., Servant, M. & Tardy, C. 1998 Forest perturbations and biodiversity during the last ten thousand years in French Guiana. Acta Oecol. Int. J. Ecol. 19, 295-302.
19. Clark, D. B. & Clark, D. A. 1996 Abundance, growth and mortality of very large trees in neotropical lowland rain forest. Forest. Ecol. Mngmt 80, 235-244.
20. Cochrane, M. A. 2001a In the line of fire - understanding the impacts of tropical forest fires. Environment 43, 28-38.
21. Cochrane, M. A. 2001b Synergistic interactions between habitat fragmentation and fire in evergreen tropical forests. Conserv. Biol. 15, 1515-1521.
22. Cochrane, M. A. & Laurance, W. F. 2002 Fire as a large-scale edge effect in Amazonian forests. J. Trop. Ecol. 18, 311-325.
23. Cochrane, M. A. & Schulze, M. D. 1998 Forest fires in the Brazilian Amazon. Conserv. Biol. 12, 948-950.
24. Cochrane, M. A. & Schulze, M. D. 1999 Fire as a recurrent event in tropical forests of the eastern Amazon: effects on forest structure, biomass, and species composition. Biotropica 31, 2-16.
25. Cochrane, M. A., Alencar, A., Schulze, M. D., Souza, C. M., Nepstad, D. C., Lefebvre, P. & Davidson, E. A. 1999 Positive feedbacks in the fire dynamic of closed canopy tropical forests. Science 284, 1832-1835.
26. Condit, R., Hubbell, S. P. & Foster, R. B. 1995 Mortality rates of 205 neotropical tree and shrub species and the impact of a severe drought. Ecol. Monogr. 65, 419-439.
27. Curran, L. M., Caniago, I., Paoli, G. D., Astianti, D., Kusneti, M., Leighton, M., Nirarita, C. E. & Haeruman, H. 1999 Impact of El Nino and logging on canopy tree recruitment in Borneo. Science 286, 2184-2188.
28. Doi, T. 1988 Present status of large mammals in Kutai National Park after a large scale fire in East Kalimantan. In A research on the process of earlier recovery of tropical rain forest after a large scale fire in Kalimantan Timur, Indonesia (ed. H. Tagawa & N. Wirawan). Occasional paper no. 14, Research Center for the South Pacific, Kagoshima University, Japan.
29. Eltahir, E. A. B. & Bras, R. L. 1994 Precipitation recycling in the Amazon Basin. Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 120, 861-880.
30. Fearnside, P. M. 1987 Rethinking continuous agriculture in Amazonia. BioScience 37, 209-213.
31. Fearnside, P. M. 2001 Soybean cultivation as a threat to the environment in Brazil. Environ. Conserv. 28, 23-38.
32. Gascon, C., Williamson, G. B. & da Fonseca, G. A. B. 2000 Receding forest edges and vanishing reserves. Science 288, 1356-1358.
33. Gentry, A. H. 1993 A field guide to the families and genera of woody plants of north-west South America (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru) with supplementary notes on herbaceous taxa. Washington, DC: Conservation International.
34. Gerwing, J. J. 2002 Degradation of forests through logging and fire in the eastern Brazilian Amazon. Forest. Ecol. Mngmt 157, 131-141.
35. Goldammer, J. G. 1999 Forests on fire. Science 284, 1782-1783.
36. Guhardja, E., Fatawi, M., Sutisna, M., Mori, T. & Ohta, S. 2000 Rainforest ecosystems of East Kalimantan: El Niño, drought, fire and human impacts. New York: Springer.
37. Haugaasen, T., Barlow, J. & Peres, C. A. 2003 Surface wildfires in central Amazonia: short-term impact on forest structure and carbon loss. Forest. Ecol. Mngmt 179, 321-331.
38. Holdsworth, A. R. & Uhl, C. 1997 Fire in Amazonian selectively logged rain forest and the potential for fire reduction. Ecol. Applic. 7, 713-725.
39. IBAMA 1998 Estimativa da area de cobertura florestal afetada pelo incendio em Roraima, utilizando dados de multisensores. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE)/Divisao de Sensoriamento Remoto (Outobro de 1998).
40. Johnson, E. A., Miyanishi, K. & Bridge, S. R. J. 2001 Wildfire regime in the boreal forest and the idea of suppression and fuel buildup. Conserv. Biol. 15, 1554-1557.
41. Kapos, V. 1989 Effects of Isolation on the water status of forest patches in the Brazilian Amazon. J. Trop. Ecol. 5, 173-185.
42. Kauffman, J. B. 1991 Survival by sprouting following fire in tropical forests of the eastern Amazon. Biotropica 23, 219-224.
43. Kauffman, J. B. & Uhl, C. 1990 Interactions of anthropogenic activities, fire, and rain forests in the Amazon basin. In Fire in the tropical biota (ed. J. Goldammer), pp. 117-134. New York: Springer.
44. Kinnaird, M. F. & O'Brien, T. G. 1998 Ecological effects of wildfire on lowland rainforest in Sumatra. Conserv. Biol. 12, 954-956.
45. Lambert, F. V. & Collar, N. J. 2002 The future for Sundaic lowland forest birds: long-term effects of commercial logging and fragmentation. Forktail 18, 127-146.
46. Laurance, W. F. 1998 A crisis in the making: responses of Amazonian forests to land use and climate change. Trends Ecol. Evol. 13, 411-415.
47. Laurance, W. F. 2001 Tropical logging and human invasions. Conserv. Biol. 15, 4-5.
48. Laurance, W. F. & Fearnside, P. M. 2002 Issues in Amazonian development. Science 295, 1643-1643.
49. Laurance, W. F. & Williamson, G. B. 2001 Positive feedbacks among forest fragmentation, drought, and climate change in the Amazon. Conserv. Biol. 15, 1529-1535.
50. Laurance, W. F., Laurance, S. G., L. V., F., Rankin-de Merona, J. M., Gascon, C. & Lovejoy, T. E. 1997 Biomass collapse in Amazonian forest fragments. Science 278, 1117.
51. Laurance, W. F., Ferreira, L. V., Rankin-De Merona, J. M. & Laurance, S. G. 1998 Rain forest fragmentation and the dynamics of Amazonian tree communities. Ecology 79, 2032-2040.
52. Laurance, W. F., Delamonica, P., Laurance, S. G., Vasconcelos, H. & Lovejoy, T. E. 2000 Rainforest fragmentation kills big trees. Nature 404, 836.
53. Laurance, W. F., Cochrane, M. A., Bergen, S., Fearnside, P. M., Delamonica, P., Barber, C., D'Angelo, S. & Fernandes, T. 2001a The future of the Brazilian Amazon. Science 291, 438-139.
54. Laurance, W. F., Williamson, G. B., Delamonica, P., Oliveira, A., Lovejoy, T. E., Gascon, C. & Pohl, L. 2001b Effects of a strong drought on Amazonian forest fragments and edges. J. Trop. Ecol. 17, 771-785.
55. Laurance, W. F., Powell, G. & Hansen, L. 2002 A precarious future for Amazonia. Trends Ecol. Evol. 17, 251-252.
56. Leighton, M. 1983 The El Nino-southern oscillation event in Southeast Asia: effects of drought and fire in tropical forest in eastern Borneo. Unpublished report, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University.
57. Leighton, M. & Wirawan, N. 1986 Catastrophic drought and fire in Borneo tropical rain forest associated with the 1982-1983 El Nino southern oscillation event. In Tropical forests and the world atmosphere, AAAS Selected Symp. 101 (ed. G. T. Prance), pp. 75-102. Washington, DC: American Association for the Advancement of Science.
58. Lemmon, P. E. 1957 A new instrument for measuring forest overstory density. J. Forest. 55, 667-668.
59. Malhi, Y., Meir, P. & Brown, S. 2002 Forests, carbon and global climate. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. A 360, 1567-1591. (DOI 10.1098/rsta.2002. 1020.)
60. Martell, D. L. 2001 Forest fire management. In Forest fires. Behavioural and ecological effects (ed. E. A. Johnson & K. Miyanishi), pp. 527-583. London: Academic Press.
61. Matricardi, E. A. T., Skole, D. L., Chomentowski, W. & Cochrane, M. A. 2001 Multi-temporal detection and measurement of selective logging in the Brazilian Amazon using Landsat data. BSRSI/RA03-01/w. Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA.
62. Mayer, J. H. 1989 Socioeconomic aspects of the forest fire of 1982/83 and the relation of local communities towards forestry and forest management. FR Report no. 8, Samarinda.
63. Mesquita, R. C. G., Delamonica, P. & Laurance, W. F. 1999 Effect of surrounding vegetation on edge-related tree mortality in Amazonian forest fragments. Biol. Conserv. 91, 129-134.
64. Midgley, J. J. 2003 Is bigger better in plants? The hydraulic costs of increasing size in trees. Trends Ecol. Evol. 18, 5-6.
65. Minnich, R. A. 2001 An integrated model of two fire regimes. Conserv. Biol. 15, 1549-1553.
66. Moreira, M. Z., Sternberg, L. D. L., Martinelli, L. A., Victoria, R. L., Barbosa, E. M., Bonates, L. C. M. & Nepstad, D. C. 1997 Contribution of transpiration to forest ambient vapour based on isotopic measurements. Global Change Biol. 3, 439-450.
67. Mueller-Dombois, D. & Goldammer, J. G. 1990 Fire in tropical ecosystems and global environmental change: an introduction. In Fire in the tropical biota: ecosystem processes and global challenges, vol. 84 (ed. J. G. Goldammer), pp. 1-10. Berlin: Springer.
68. Nepstad, D. C., Moutinho, P. R., Uhl, C., Vieira, I. C. & da Silva, J. M. C. 1996 The ecological importance of forest remnants in an eastern Amazonian frontier landscape. In Forest patches in tropical landscapes (ed. J. Schelhas & R. Greenberg), pp. 133-150. Washington, DC: Island Press.
69. Nepstad, D. C. (and 11 others) 1999 Large-scale impoverishment of Amazonian forests by logging and fire. Nature 398, 505-508.
70. Nepstad, D., Carvalho, G., Barros, A. C., Alencar, A., Capobianco, J. P., Bishop, J., Moutinho, P., Lefebvre, P. & Silva, L. S. 2001 Road paving, fire regime feedbacks, and the future of Amazon forests. Forest. Ecol. Mngmt 154, 395-407.
71. Nepstad, D., McGrath, D., Alencar, A., Barros, A. C., Carvalho, G., Santilli, M. & Diaz, M. D. V. 2002a Frontier governance in Amazonia. Science 295, 629-630.
72. Nepstad, D., McGrath, D., Alencar, A., Barros, C., Carvalho, G., Santilli, M. & Diaz, M. D. V. 2002b Issues in Amazonian development - response. Science 295, 1643-1644.
73. O'Brien, T. G., Kinnaird, M. F., Nurcahyo, A., Prasetyaningrum, M. & Iqbal, M. 2003 Fire, demography and the persistance of siamang (Symphalangus syndactylus: Hylobatidae) in a Sumatran rainforest. Anim. Conserv. 6, 115-121.
74. Page, S. E., Siegen, F., Rieley, J. O., Boehm, H. D. V., Jaya, A. & Limin, S. 2002 The amount of carbon released from peat and forest fires in Indonesia during 1997. Nature 420, 61-65.
75. Parrotta, J. A., Francis, J. K. & Almeida, R. R. 1995 Trees of the Tapajos: a photographic field guide. Rio Pedras, Costa Rica: International Institute of Tropical Forestry.
76. Peres, C. A. 1999 Ground fires as agents of mortality in a central Amazonian forest. J. Trop. Ecol. 15, 535-541.
77. Peres, C. A. 2001a Paving the way to the future of Amazonia. Trends Ecol. Evol. 16, 217-219.
78. Peres, C. A. 2001b Synergistic effects of subsistence hunting and habitat fragmentation on Amazonian forest vertebrates. Conserv. Biol. 15, 1490-1505.
79. Peres, C. A., Barlow, J. & Haugaasen, T. 2003 Vertebrate responses to surface fires in a central Amazonian forest. Oryx 37, 97-109.
80. Phillips, O. L. (and 10 others) 1998 Changes in the carbon balance of tropical forests: evidence from long-term plots. Science 282, 439-142.
81. Pinard, M. A. & Huffman, J. 1997 Fire resistance and bark properties of trees in a seasonally dry forest in eastern Bolivia. J. Trop. Ecol. 13, 727-740.
82. Pinard, M. A., Putz, F. E. & Licona, J. C. 1999 Tree mortality and vine proliferation following a wildfire in a subhumid tropical forest in eastern Bolivia. Forest. Ecol. Mngmt 116, 247-252.
83. Putz, F. E. 1983 Liana biomass and leaf area of a 'tierra firme' forest in the Rio Negro Basin, Venezuela. Biotropica 15, 185-189.
84. Putz, F. E., Dykstra, D. P. & Heinrich, R. 2000 Why poor logging practices persist in the tropics. Conserv. Biol. 14, 951-956.
85. Ribeiro, J. E. L. da S. (and 13 others) 1999 Flora da Reserva Ducke: Guia de identificacao das plantas vasculares de uma floresta de terra-firme na Amazonia Central. Manaus: INPA.
86. Saleh, C. 1997 Wildlife survey report from burned and unburned forest areas in central Kalimantan. Unpublished report, WWF Indonesia programme.
87. Sanford, R. L., Saldarriaga, J., Clark, K. E., Uhl, C. & Herrera, R. 1985 Amazon rain-forest fires. Science 227, 53-55.
88. Santos, J. 1996. Análise de modelos de regressao para estimar a fitomassa de floresta tropical umida de terra-firme da Amazonia Central. PhD thesis. Universidade Federal de Vicosa, Minas Gerais.
89. Santos, J. R., Pardi Lacruz, M. S., Araujo, L. S. & Xaud, H. A. M. 1998 El processo de quiema de biomassa de bosque tropical y de sabanas en la Amazonia Brasileira: experiencas de monitoreo com dados ópticos y de microndas. Rev. Ser. Geograf. 1, 97-108.
90. Siegert, F., Ruecker, G., Hinrichs, A. & Hoffmann, A. A. 2001 Increased damage from fires in logged forests during droughts caused by El Niño. Nature 414, 437-440.
91. Slik, J. W. F., Verburg, R. W. & Kessler, P. J. A. 2002 Effects of fire and selective logging on the tree species composition of lowland dipterocarp forest in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Biodivers. Conserv. 11, 85-98.
92. Sunarto, S. 2000 Survival of plant communities and dynamics of forest ecosystems in response to fire: a long-term study from Sumatra. MSc thesis, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
93. Suzuki, A. 1988 The socioecological study of orangutans and forest conditions after the big forest fire and drought, 1983 in Kutai National Park, Indonesia. In Occasional paper no. 14, Research Center for the South Pacific, Kagoshima University (ed. H. Tagawa & N. Wirawan).
94. Swaine, M. D. 1992 Characteristics of dry forest in West Africa and the influence of fire. J. Veg. Sci. 3, 365-374.
95. Timmermann, A., Oberhuber, J., Bacher, A., Esch, M., Latif, M. & Roeckner, E. 1999 Increased El Niño frequency in a climate model forced by future greenhouse warming. Nature 398, 694-697.
96. Turcq, B., Sifeddine, A., Martin, L., Absy, M. L., Soubies, F., Suguio, K. & Volkmer-Ribeiro, C. 1998 Amazonia rainforest fires: a lacustrine record of 7000 years. Ambio 27, 139-142.
97. Uhl, C. 1998 Perspectives on wildfire in the humid tropics. Conserv. Biol. 12, 942-943.
98. Uhl, C. & Buschbacher, R. 1985 A disturbing synergism between cattle ranch burning practices and selective tree harvesting in the eastern Amazon. Biotropica 17, 265-268.
99. Uhl, C. & Kauffman, J. B. 1990 Deforestation, fire susceptibility, and potential tree responses to fire in the eastern Amazon. Ecology 71, 437-449.
100. Uhl, C., Verissimo, A., Mattos, M. M., Brandino, Z. & Vieira, I. C. G. 1991 Social, economic, and ecological consequences of selective logging in an Amazon frontier - the case of Tailandia. Forest. Ecol. Mngmt 46, 243-273.
101. van Roosmalen, M. G. M. 1985 Fruits of the Guianan flora. Utrecht, The Netherlands: Institute of Systematic Botany.
102. Wirawan, N. 1985 Kutai National Park management plan 1985-1990. Bogor: WWF/IUCN.
103. Woods, P. 1989 Effects of logging, drought, and fire on structure and composition of tropical forests in Sabah, Malaysia. Biotropica 21, 290-298.
104. Wuethrich, B. 2000 Conservation biology - combined insults spell trouble for rainforests. Science 289, 35-37.