Vegetation Fires, Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Climate Change

Dear Colleagues,

Vegetation fires have a large impact on the global carbon cycle and climate, releasing a variety of trace gases, such as CO, CO₂, and CH₄, into the Earth’s atmosphere. Fire emissions are associated with different anthropogenic and natural processes, from fires in the humid tropics, largely associated with deforestation activities, to wildfires in the temperate and boreal forests. Fire is also used as a tool, in agricultural lands or in slash and burn activities, where it may escape to surrounding forests in drought periods. In most regions of the world, climate change will increase the extent and severity of wildfires.

Understanding the role of climatic factors (e.g., long-term droughts) and anthropogenic factors (e.g., use of fire in grasslands or tropical woodlands) is very important to define fire management policies, which should keep in consideration future complex interactions among climate, land use/land cover, and socioeconomic changes. Satellite remote sensing provides the of extracting long-term trends of these the relationships among vegetation dynamics, fire incidence, and environmental factors.

The aim of this Special Issue is to present current research on fire management practices that lead to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, taking into consideration the determinants and effects of fire in each region, and the projected impacts of climate change. In some ecosystems, such as the tropical savannas, reducing gas emissions can be obtained by carrying out controlled burning in the early part of the dry season to prevent more frequent and intense fires later in the dry season. In other ecosystems, such as the temperate forests, prescribed fires are a tool for the long-term reduction of large wildfires and greenhouse gas emissions.

The submission of articles regarding the following topics will be most appreciated: applications of remotely sensed data for fire and vegetation monitoring; estimation of greenhouse gas emissions from vegetation fires; fire dynamics and carbon cycle; spatiotemporal trend analysis of fire incidence at regional and global scales; prescribed fires; land use/land cover–fire relationships; impacts of climate change on fire regimes; drivers of land cover/land use change; fire management practices.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Fire.

Dr. João Neves Silva
Dr. Duarte Oom
Guest Editors

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• Vegetation fires
• GHG emissions
• Fire regimes
• Land use/land cover
• Fire management
• Climate change
• Remote sensing