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Fire in Savanna Landscapes
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Fire in Savanna Landscapes

A special issue of Fire (ISSN 2571-6255).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2022) | Viewed by 30040

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Aziz Ballouche

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Geography, Faculty of Sciences, University of Angers, ESO UMR 6590 CNRS, 2 Boulevard de Lavoisier, 49045 Angers, France
Interests: savanna; burned landscapes; fire history; land cover/land use change; Anthropocene; West Africa; Madagascar
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Fire is an omnipresent phenomenon in savanna environments, and the tropical savanna is the biome where most fire activity occurs worldwide. For a long time, bushfires were viewed with apprehension by the governing authorities and severely repressed, especially in colonized countries. They have thus been the subject of numerous regulations but also of control and management measures. The role of fire in savanna has also been studied for its impacts on vegetation, soils, and fauna at the scale of the ecosystem and that of the landscape. Studies have also attempted to show its contribution to the process of tropical forest degradation and even desertification.

Over the past two decades, the views of both scientists and environmental managers have gradually shifted. More critical environmental thinking, complex epistemological conceptions, and innovative observation and modeling methods favor new scientific approaches. Fire’s ecological role is best understood first as an intrinsic dynamic factor in savanna ecosystems, then as a generator of landscape heterogeneity, potentially leading to new forms of biodiversity (pyrodiversity). Palaeoenvironmental and historical studies demonstrate that savanna landscapes are mostly the manifestation of long-term interaction between humans and nature, of which one of the keys to deciphering is the history of the uses of fire and burning. In the social sciences, it is also concerned with understanding the indigenous fire management systems with less pejorative representations and how human strategies and livelihoods are significant variables that should be explored. The growing number of experiences with prescribed fires in protected areas is a living testimony to the change in the vision of environmental managers. At the same time, it is necessary to continue to observe and model the dynamics of burned areas and fire regimes in relation to vegetation, bioclimatic conditions, and diverse practices of the local populations to better understand their evolution in the context of climate and land-use change. Finally, fire is increasingly investigated as a crucial issue in the processes in action during the Anthropocene.

One of the objectives of the Special Issue is to question all these new approaches. While some savanna regions such as Australia or Brazil have been the subject of such studies, they are still insufficient elsewhere and deserve to be better disseminated. However, more monographic approaches are still necessary to document burned areas and characterize their fire regimes in many savanna landscapes. This type of study is welcome, especially in poorly documented regions in proportion to the importance of the role played by fires.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Aziz Ballouche
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • Savanna landscape
  • Savanna ecosystem
  • Land cover
  • Bushfires
  • Fire ecology
  • Fire regimes
  • Fire history
  • Pyrodiversity
  • Human dimensions of fire and burning
  • Wildfire management
  • Land use change
  • Climate change
  • Anthropocene

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (9 papers)

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19 pages, 14085 KiB  
Article
Exploring Spatial Distributions of Land Use and Land Cover Change in Fire-Affected Areas of Miombo Woodlands of the Beira Corridor, Central Mozambique
by Victorino Américo Buramuge, Natasha Sofia Ribeiro, Lennart Olsson and Romana Rombe Bandeira
Fire 2023, 6(2), 77; https://doi.org/10.3390/fire6020077 - 18 Feb 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2533
Abstract
Miombo woodlands (MW) are increasingly experiencing widespread land use and land cover change (LULCC). This study explores the influence of fire, agriculture, and slope variability on LULCC in the miombo of the Beira Corridor. Land use and land cover data were derived from [...] Read more.
Miombo woodlands (MW) are increasingly experiencing widespread land use and land cover change (LULCC). This study explores the influence of fire, agriculture, and slope variability on LULCC in the miombo of the Beira Corridor. Land use and land cover data were derived from three Landsat images for 2001, 2008, and 2018. Slope attributes were derived from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). Monthly burned data of Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) were used to map fire frequency. The derived data were then used to investigate the relationship between LULCC and fire, agriculture, and slope, based on geographically weighted regression (GWR). In addition, the relationship between LULCC and slope was assessed. Our findings indicate that fire frequency, agriculture, and slope were significantly spatially non-stationary. We found that LULCC was negatively correlated with agriculture in open miombo, but positively correlated in dense miombo. A positive relationship between LULCC and fire was found for dense and open miombo. Changes in agriculture, dense miombo, and open miombo increased towards high slopes. The study improves the understanding of the spatial effect of LULCC drivers. The development and implementation of effective fire management actions is required to promote sustainable forest management and preservation of critical ecosystem services. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fire in Savanna Landscapes)
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25 pages, 7773 KiB  
Article
The Pyrogeography of Methane Emissions from Seasonal Mosaic Burning Regimes in a West African Landscape
by Paul Laris, Moussa Koné, Fadiala Dembélé, Christine M. Rodrigue, Lilian Yang, Rebecca Jacobs, Quincy Laris and Facourou Camara
Fire 2023, 6(2), 52; https://doi.org/10.3390/fire6020052 - 1 Feb 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1819
Abstract
People have set fire to the savannas of West Africa for millennia, creating a pyrogeography. Fires render the landscape useful for many productive activities, but there is also a long history of efforts to regulate indigenous burning practices. Today, savanna fires are under [...] Read more.
People have set fire to the savannas of West Africa for millennia, creating a pyrogeography. Fires render the landscape useful for many productive activities, but there is also a long history of efforts to regulate indigenous burning practices. Today, savanna fires are under scrutiny because they contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, especially methane. Policy efforts aimed at reducing emissions by shifting fire regimes earlier are untested. Most emissions estimates contain high levels of uncertainty because they are based on generalizations of diverse landscapes burned by complex fire regimes. To examine the importance of seasonality and other factors on methane emissions, we used an approach grounded in the practices of people who set fires. We conducted 107 experimental fires, collecting data for methane emissions and a suite of environmental variables. We sampled emissions using a portable gas analyzer, recording values for CO, CO2, and CH4. The fires were set both as head and backfires for three fire periods—the early, middle, and late dry season. We also set fires randomly to test whether the emissions differed from those set according to traditional practices. We found that methane emission factors and densities did not increase over the dry season but rather peaked mid-season due to higher winds and fuel moisture as well as green leaves on small trees. The findings demonstrate the complexity of emissions from fires and cast doubt on efforts to reduce emissions based on simplified characterizations of fire regimes and landscapes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fire in Savanna Landscapes)
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12 pages, 2107 KiB  
Article
Fire and Herbivory Interactively Suppress the Survival and Growth of Trees in an African Semiarid Savanna
by Mary W. Ngugi, Duncan M. Kimuyu, Ryan L. Sensenig, Wilfred O. Odadi, Samuel K. Kiboi, Joyce K. Omari and Truman P. Young
Fire 2022, 5(5), 169; https://doi.org/10.3390/fire5050169 - 18 Oct 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2732
Abstract
There has been a long-standing interest in understanding how interactions between fire and herbivory influence woody vegetation dynamics in savanna ecosystems. However, controlled, replicated experiments examining how different fire regimes interact with different herbivore groups are rare. We tested the effects of single [...] Read more.
There has been a long-standing interest in understanding how interactions between fire and herbivory influence woody vegetation dynamics in savanna ecosystems. However, controlled, replicated experiments examining how different fire regimes interact with different herbivore groups are rare. We tested the effects of single and repeated burns, crossed with six replicated herbivore treatments, on the mortality and growth of woody vegetation in the Kenya Long-term Exclosure Experiment plots located in a semi-arid savanna system in central Kenya. Burned plots experienced higher tree mortality overall, but differences between burns and non-burns were only significant in plots excluding all wild herbivores and in plots accessible to megaherbivores. Cattle ameliorated the negative effects of repeat burns on tree mortality, perhaps by suppressing fuel load accumulation. Across all herbivore treatments, trees experienced a significant reduction in height within the first two years after fire (top-kill), which was followed by a gradual recovery. Saplings and coppices subjected to repeated burns regrew faster than those that were burned once, except in the presence of megaherbivores. This study highlights strong context-dependent interactions between fire and different herbivore groups, and extends previous approaches to understanding fire–herbivory interactions, which have tended to lump the effects of different herbivore groups, or study them separately. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fire in Savanna Landscapes)
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14 pages, 2165 KiB  
Article
Numerical Study of the Effectiveness of a Firebreak in a Savanna Area and the Sizing Rules by an Optimised Fire Propagation Model
by Akahoua D. V. Brou
Fire 2022, 5(5), 156; https://doi.org/10.3390/fire5050156 - 30 Sep 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2325
Abstract
Firebreaks are one of the techniques used to fight bushfires in Côte d’Ivoire. Their objective is to prevent the progression of fire and to protect sensitive sites. In this paper, a parametric study on the effectiveness of a firebreak in a savanna area [...] Read more.
Firebreaks are one of the techniques used to fight bushfires in Côte d’Ivoire. Their objective is to prevent the progression of fire and to protect sensitive sites. In this paper, a parametric study on the effectiveness of a firebreak in a savanna area is conducted using a fire spread model. The ability of the model to conduct this study was tested by an empirical model based on fire experiments in the Australian savanna. An agreement was found between the results predicted by our model and those of the empirical model. The parametric study conducted on the effectiveness of firebreaks indicated that a firebreak thickness equal to twice the flame length was effective. For bushfire control in Côte d’Ivoire, a firebreak with a minimum thickness of 8 m could stop the fire despite the slope of the land and the wind speed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fire in Savanna Landscapes)
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26 pages, 16895 KiB  
Article
Spatial Analysis of the Occurrence and Spread of Wildfires in Southwest Madagascar
by Laura Champin, Aude Nuscia Taïbi and Aziz Ballouche
Fire 2022, 5(4), 98; https://doi.org/10.3390/fire5040098 - 13 Jul 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3372
Abstract
The island of Madagascar, located in the southern hemisphere between the equator and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Indian Ocean, 450 km from the African continent, is particularly affected by wildfires. The vegetation of the phytogeographic Western Domain of the island consists [...] Read more.
The island of Madagascar, located in the southern hemisphere between the equator and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Indian Ocean, 450 km from the African continent, is particularly affected by wildfires. The vegetation of the phytogeographic Western Domain of the island consists largely of savannas, wooded grassland, and secondary grassland, maintained by the repeated action of fire operating each year on a seasonal cycle. Rural populations employ fire to manage land use. Depending on the burning practice and the environment in which the fires happen, the impacts vary. This paper supplement the studies that have so far located and quantified wildfires by taking into account their different behaviors, particularly their spread. We analyzed the modalities of the relationship between the two fire products, active fire and burned area, derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data to establish a typology based on fire spread patterns. We identified three general patterns of fire behaviors, as well as their locations in the studied area. Spatial analysis of this patterns enabled us to understand spatial logics better. Type 1 fires are the least frequently observed and have many active fires, but little or no burned area. Type 2 fires are the most common and have areas that burn like a mosaic. Type 3 fires are observed slightly less frequently than the previous type and have few active fires and large burned areas. An inter-annual analysis reveals the spatial stability or variability of these fire types. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fire in Savanna Landscapes)
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18 pages, 22979 KiB  
Article
Dynamics of Anthropogenic Wildfire on Babeldaob Island (Palau) as Revealed by Fire History
by Julian Dendy, Dino Mesubed, Patrick L. Colin, Christian P. Giardina, Susan Cordell, Tarita Holm and Amanda Uowolo
Fire 2022, 5(2), 45; https://doi.org/10.3390/fire5020045 - 6 Apr 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4542
Abstract
Wildfire is an understudied threat to biodiversity in many tropical landscapes, including island nations of the Pacific, such as The Republic of Palau—a global biodiversity hotspot with ridge-to-reef resources. Fires are known to occur on Palau’s main island of Babeldaob, where they can [...] Read more.
Wildfire is an understudied threat to biodiversity in many tropical landscapes, including island nations of the Pacific, such as The Republic of Palau—a global biodiversity hotspot with ridge-to-reef resources. Fires are known to occur on Palau’s main island of Babeldaob, where they can result in increased erosion rates and sediment delivery to near-shore areas with impacts to streams and coral reefs. Fire-adapted native plant species are found in savanna habitats, but fires often extend into adjacent forest areas where they kill overstory trees. To assess this serious biodiversity and human health threat, we mapped wildland fires on Babeldaob Island using ground-based surveys and aerial photographs between 2012 and 2015, and satellite imagery between 2012 and 2021. Data on causal factors, vegetation type, and the presence of invasive species were collected between 2012 and 2015, with hunting, arson, and agricultural clearing being the principal causes of ignitions. Wildfires occurred in all months and in all 10 states of Babeldaob, and both numbers of wildfires and total burned area were substantially greater during dry seasons, with the highest totals occurring in the one El Niño drought year in our record. Overall, wildfires appear to have a minor impact on forest vegetation because they are largely confined to savanna systems, but rainfall on burned savanna is a major cause of erosion and the sedimentation of streams and near-shore habitats. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fire in Savanna Landscapes)
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14 pages, 2233 KiB  
Article
Estimation of Byram’s Fire Intensity and Rate of Spread from Spaceborne Remote Sensing Data in a Savanna Landscape
by Gernot Ruecker, David Leimbach and Joachim Tiemann
Fire 2021, 4(4), 65; https://doi.org/10.3390/fire4040065 - 29 Sep 2021
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 4281
Abstract
Fire behavior is well described by a fire’s direction, rate of spread, and its energy release rate. Fire intensity as defined by Byram (1959) is the most commonly used term describing fire behavior in the wildfire community. It is, however, difficult to observe [...] Read more.
Fire behavior is well described by a fire’s direction, rate of spread, and its energy release rate. Fire intensity as defined by Byram (1959) is the most commonly used term describing fire behavior in the wildfire community. It is, however, difficult to observe from space. Here, we assess fire spread and fire radiative power using infrared sensors with different spatial, spectral and temporal resolutions. The sensors used offer either high spatial resolution (Sentinel-2) for fire detection, but a low temporal resolution, moderate spatial resolution and daily observations (VIIRS), and high temporal resolution with low spatial resolution and fire radiative power retrievals (Meteosat SEVIRI). We extracted fire fronts from Sentinel-2 (using the shortwave infrared bands) and use the available fire products for S-NPP VIIRS and Meteosat SEVIRI. Rate of spread was analyzed by measuring the displacement of fire fronts between the mid-morning Sentinel-2 overpasses and the early afternoon VIIRS overpasses. We retrieved FRP from 15-min Meteosat SEVIRI observations and estimated total fire radiative energy release over the observed fire fronts. This was then converted to total fuel consumption, and, by making use of Sentinel-2-derived burned area, to fuel consumption per unit area. Using rate of spread and fuel consumption per unit area, Byram’s fire intensity could be derived. We tested this approach on a small number of fires in a frequently burning West African savanna landscape. Comparison to field experiments in the area showed similar numbers between field observations and remote-sensing-derived estimates. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first direct estimate of Byram’s fire intensity from spaceborne remote sensing data. Shortcomings of the presented approach, foundations of an error budget, and potential further development, also considering upcoming sensor systems, are discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fire in Savanna Landscapes)
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12 pages, 19099 KiB  
Technical Note
Fire Has a Positive Effect on the Abundance of Sun Spiders (Arachnida: Solifugae) in the Cerrado-Pantanal Ecotone
by Bruno Arguelho Arrua, Leonardo Sousa Carvalho, Thiago Silva Teles, Maxwell da Rosa Oliveira and Danilo Bandini Ribeiro
Fire 2023, 6(2), 69; https://doi.org/10.3390/fire6020069 - 15 Feb 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2703
Abstract
Fire is an important disturbance factor in shrublands, grasslands, and savannas. It alters the habitat of a multitude of species and, under natural dynamics, is a major determinant of landscape vegetation patterns. Here, we evaluate the effects of different wildfire regimes on the [...] Read more.
Fire is an important disturbance factor in shrublands, grasslands, and savannas. It alters the habitat of a multitude of species and, under natural dynamics, is a major determinant of landscape vegetation patterns. Here, we evaluate the effects of different wildfire regimes on the abundance of sun spiders in the Cerrado-Pantanal ecotone. To study how different fire regimes affect the number of individual sun spiders, we considered the frequency of fire occurrences in the last 20 years and classified locations as high frequency or low frequency. We also classified the time of the last fire in 2020 as occurring in the first or second half of the year. In addition, we compared the number of individual sun spiders before and after fire. We found no effects of fire frequency and period when the fire occurred in 2020, but the number of individual sun spiders was higher after wildfires. Although ground-dwelling are considered fire sensitive, some can employ strategies to tolerate fire so that they are able to not only survive, but also reproduce in fire-prone landscapes. Thus, we suggest that sun spiders are resilient, can explore sites under different fire regimes, and can be considered pyrophilous species. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fire in Savanna Landscapes)
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11 pages, 2870 KiB  
Technical Note
Double-Differenced dNBR: Combining MODIS and Landsat Imagery to Map Fine-Grained Fire MOSAICS in Lowland Eucalyptus Savanna in Kakadu National Park, Northern Australia
by Grant J. Williamson, Todd M. Ellis and David M. J. S. Bowman
Fire 2022, 5(5), 160; https://doi.org/10.3390/fire5050160 - 3 Oct 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2653
Abstract
A neglected dimension of the fire regime concept is fire patchiness. Habitat mosaics that emerge from the grain of burned and unburned patches (pyrodiversity) are critical for the persistence of a diverse range of plant and animal species. This issue is of particular [...] Read more.
A neglected dimension of the fire regime concept is fire patchiness. Habitat mosaics that emerge from the grain of burned and unburned patches (pyrodiversity) are critical for the persistence of a diverse range of plant and animal species. This issue is of particular importance in frequently burned tropical Eucalyptus savannas, where coarse fire mosaics have been hypothesized to have caused the recent drastic population declines of small mammals. Satellites routinely used for fire mapping in these systems are unable to accurately map fine-grained fire mosaics, frustrating our ability to determine whether declines in biodiversity are associated with local pyrodiversity. To advance this problem, we have developed a novel method (we call ‘double-differenced dNBR’) that combines the infrequent (c. 16 days) detailed spatial resolution Landsat with daily coarse scale coverage of MODIS and VIIRS to map pyrodiversity in the savannas of Kakadu National Park. We used seasonal Landsat mosaics and differenced normalized burn ratio (dNBR) to define burned areas, with a modification to dNBR that subtracts long-term average dNBR to increase contrast. Our results show this approach is effective in mapping fine-scale fire mosaics in the homogenous lowland savannas, although inappropriate for nearby heterogenous landscapes. Comparison of this methods to other fire metrics (e.g., area burned, seasonality) based on Landsat and MODIS imagery suggest this method is likely accurate and better at quantifying fine-scale patchiness of fire, albeit it demands detailed field validation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fire in Savanna Landscapes)
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