Special Issue Editors

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Guest Editor

Department of Ecology, University of Brasília, Brasilia, Brazil
Interests: conservation biology; ecology; zoology

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Guest Editor

Department of Ecology, Universidade de Brasília, Brasilia, Brazil
Interests: fire ecology; fire management; ethnoecology; ecological restoration

Dr. Renata Libonati

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Guest Editor

Instituto de Geociências (IGEO), Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro 21941-916, Brazil
Interests: climate; remote sensing; wildfires; climate extremes such as drought and heatwaves
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue of Fire, entitled ‘Recent Progress in Fire Ecology and Management in Tropical and Subtropical Ecosystems’. Fire is recognized as a fundamental ecological process with a pivotal role in shaping the evolution and function of several ecosystems worldwide. Fire events may cause local species extinction, modify populations and communities, drive successional patterns, and affect carbon and nutrient cycling.

The occurrence of both natural and anthropogenic wildfires is markedly increasing around the globe. This increase is caused not only by climatic events (e.g., severe droughts and hotter days) but also directly by human activities. The tropical and subtropical ecosystems (including rainforests, seasonal forests, savannas, and grasslands) have been greatly affected by this increase in fire frequency. With this scenario, both researchers and managers are facing the challenge of developing adequate fire management strategies. However, good-quality and adequate scientific information regarding the effects of fire events (both natural and man-made) on these ecosystems is essential.

In this Special Issue, we aim to stimulate the publication of scientific articles assessing the impacts of natural and anthropogenic fires on several aspects of subtropical and tropical ecosystems. We welcome studies that investigate the direct and indirect effects of fire on organisms and ecological processes in these ecosystems. We are also interested in studies investigating the efficacy of fire-management strategies for maintaining the biodiversity in these ecosystems and potentially reducing the occurrence of large, unplanned, and usually catastrophic wildfires. In this Special Issue, both original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

Effects of fire management strategies on the biodiversity of tropical and subtropical ecosystems;
Effects of large wildfires on the biota in tropical and subtropical ecosystems;
Effects of fire on woody plant encroachment in tropical and subtropical ecosystems
Indirect effects of fire on tropical and subtropical ecosystems, including effects on nutrient cycling, plant successional patterns, and plant–animal interactions;
Effects of pyrodiversity on biodiversity in tropical and subtropical ecosystems;
Landscape fire management in tropical and subtropical ecosystems;
Identification and protection of fire-sensitive species in tropical and subtropical ecosystems.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Emerson Monteiro Vieira
Dr. Isabel B. Schmidt
Dr. Renata Libonati
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Fire is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

biodiversity
fire behavior
fire ecology
fire management
fire regime
pyrodiversity
savannas
subtropical forests
tropical biota
tropical forests

Published Papers (1 paper)

Research

Open AccessArticle

Species-Specific Responses of Medium and Large Mammals to Fire Regime Attributes in a Fire-Prone Neotropical Savanna

Clarice Vieira Souza

Águeda Lourenço

and

Emerson Monteiro Vieira

Fire 2023, 6(3), 110; https://doi.org/10.3390/fire6030110 - 10 Mar 2023

Viewed by 345

Abstract

Fire occurrence affects the distribution of key resources for fauna in natural ecosystems worldwide. For fire management strategies adequate for biodiversity conservation, the understanding of how species respond to fire-induced changes is essential. In this study, we investigated the role of fire regimes on spaces used by medium and large mammals at multiple spatial scales (0.8 ha to 78.5 ha) in a fire-prone savanna ecosystem (Brazilian Cerrado). We sampled mammals using 60 camera traps distributed in 30 sampling units located in grassland and typical savanna formations. We applied single-species occupancy models and AIC-based model selection to assess how mammals use the space in response to pyrodiversity (both diversity of fire frequencies and diversity of fire ages), the proportion of recently burned area, and the proportion of long-unburned area while accounting for detectability. Our results showed that fire regime variables affected the study species differently. Deer species used the space regardless of mosaic pyrodiversity and the proportion of specific fire ages. Fire-related variables, however, affected space use by tapirs and maned wolves. Tapirs preferred to use fire mosaics with lower diversity of fire frequencies, whereas maned wolves more intensively used mosaics with high fire age diversity and a high proportion of recently burned areas. Based on our findings, we recommend that fire management targeting specific mammal species should not necessarily focus on maximum pyrodiversity. Instead, we suggest a management strategy combining “patch mosaic burning” with the maintenance of specific fire-age patches suitable for different species’ requirements. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Progress in Fire Ecology and Management in Tropical and Subtropical Ecosystems)

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