Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, United States of America.
Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
PLoS One. 2022 Mar 31;17(3):e0263313. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0263313. eCollection 2022.
Anthropogenic fire use is widespread across Madagascar and threatens the island's unprecedented endemic biodiversity. The vast majority (96%) of lemur species are already threatened with extinction, and Madagascar has already lost more than 44% of its forests. Previous conservation assessments have noted the role of fire in the rampant deforestation and habitat degradation across Madagascar, but published, quantified data on fire use across the island are incredibly limited. Here, we present the first quantification of spatiotemporal patterns in fire occurrence across Madagascar using VIIRS satellite fire detection data. We assess which regions of Madagascar have the most prevalent fire use, how fire use is changing over time, and what this means for Madagascar's remaining forest ecosystems. An average of 356,189 fires were detected every year in Madagascar from 2012-2019, averaging 0.604 fires/km2. Fire use was near-ubiquitous across the island, but was most prevalent in the western dry deciduous forests and succulent woodlands ecoregions. Fire frequency in the eastern lowlands was highest around the remaining humid rainforest, and fire frequency was increasing over time around much of the remaining humid and dry forest. We found that 18.6% of all remaining forest was within 500 m of a fire within a single year, and 39.3% was within 1 km. More than half of remaining forest was within 1 km of a fire in a single year in the dry deciduous forests, succulent woodlands, and mangroves ecoregions. However, fire frequency within national park protected areas was, on average, 65% lower than their surroundings. Only 7.1% of national park forest was within 500 m of a fire within one year, and 17.1% was within 1 km, suggesting that national parks are effective at reducing fire frequency in Madagascar's tropical forests.
人为引发的火灾在马达加斯加广泛存在，威胁着该岛前所未有的特有生物多样性。绝大多数（96%）的狐猴物种已经面临灭绝威胁，而马达加斯加已经失去了超过 44%的森林。先前的保护评估已经注意到火灾在马达加斯加猖獗的森林砍伐和栖息地退化中的作用，但有关该岛火灾使用情况的已发表的量化数据非常有限。在这里，我们使用 VIIRS 卫星火灾探测数据首次对马达加斯加火灾发生的时空模式进行了量化。我们评估了马达加斯加哪些地区火灾使用最普遍，火灾使用随时间如何变化，以及这对马达加斯加剩余的森林生态系统意味着什么。2012-2019 年，马达加斯加每年平均检测到 356189 起火灾，平均每平方公里发生 0.604 起火灾。火灾在整个岛屿几乎无处不在，但在西部干燥落叶林和多汁林地生态区最为普遍。东部低地的火灾频率在剩余的潮湿雨林周围最高，而在剩余的潮湿和干燥森林周围，火灾频率随时间呈上升趋势。我们发现，在一年内，所有剩余森林中有 18.6%位于距火灾 500 米范围内，39.3%位于 1 公里范围内。在干燥落叶林、多汁林地和红树林生态区，超过一半的剩余森林在一年内距离火灾 1 公里以内。然而，国家公园保护区内的火灾频率平均比其周围低 65%。只有 7.1%的国家公园森林在一年内距离火灾 500 米以内，17.1%在 1 公里以内，这表明国家公园在降低马达加斯加热带森林的火灾频率方面是有效的。
