Wildfire Incidence throughout the Brazilian Pantanal Is Driven by Local Climate Rather Than Bovine Stocking Density

Paulo Eduardo Teodoro, Luciano de Souza Maria, Jéssica Marciella Almeida Rodrigues, Adriana de Avila e Silva, Maiara Cristina Metzdorf da Silva, Samara Santos de Souza, Fernando Saragosa Rossi, Larissa Pereira Ribeiro Teodoro, João Lucas Della-Silva, Rafael Coll Delgado, Mendelson Lima, Carlos A. Peres and Carlos Antonio da Silva Junior ()
Additional contact information
Paulo Eduardo Teodoro: Department of Agronomy, Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS), Chapadão do Sul 79560-000, MS, Brazil
Luciano de Souza Maria: Department of Agronomy, State University of São Paulo (UNESP), Jaboticabal 14884-900, SP, Brazil
Jéssica Marciella Almeida Rodrigues: Department of Biology, State University of Mato Grosso (UNEMAT), Alta Floresta 78580-000, MT, Brazil
Adriana de Avila e Silva: Department of Biology, State University of Mato Grosso (UNEMAT), Alta Floresta 78580-000, MT, Brazil
Maiara Cristina Metzdorf da Silva: Department of Biology, State University of Mato Grosso (UNEMAT), Alta Floresta 78580-000, MT, Brazil
Samara Santos de Souza: Department of Biology, State University of Mato Grosso (UNEMAT), Alta Floresta 78580-000, MT, Brazil
Fernando Saragosa Rossi: Department of Agronomy, State University of São Paulo (UNESP), Jaboticabal 14884-900, SP, Brazil
Larissa Pereira Ribeiro Teodoro: Department of Agronomy, Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS), Chapadão do Sul 79560-000, MS, Brazil
João Lucas Della-Silva: Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biodiversidade e Biotecnologia da Amazônia Legal (BIONORTE), State University of Mato Grosso (UNEMAT), Sinop 78555-000, MT, Brazil
Rafael Coll Delgado: Department of Environmental Sciences, Forest Institute, Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ), Seropédica 23897-000, RJ, Brazil
Mendelson Lima: Department of Biology, State University of Mato Grosso (UNEMAT), Alta Floresta 78580-000, MT, Brazil
Carlos A. Peres: School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia (UEA), Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
Carlos Antonio da Silva Junior: Department of Geography, State University of Mato Grosso (UNEMAT), Sinop 78555-000, MT, Brazil

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 16, 1-16

Abstract: The Pantanal is the world’s largest and most biodiverse continental sheet-flow wetland. Recently, vast tracts of the Pantanal have succumbed to the occurrence of fires, raising serious concerns over the future integrity of the biodiversity and ecosystem services of this biome, including revenues from ecotourism. These wildfires degrade the baseline of natural ecosystems and the ecotourism economy across the region. Local residents (“Pantaneiros”) anecdotally state that extensive cattle herbivory can solve the contemporary flammability problem of the Pantanal by controlling vegetation biomass, thereby preventing or reducing both fuel loads and fires across the region. Here, we examine the covariation between the presence and density of cattle and the incidence of fires across the Brazilian Pantanal. Variables assessed included bovine cattle density, SPI (Standardized Precipitation Index), GPP (Gross Primary Productivity)/biomass estimate, and fire foci along a 19-year time series (2001 to 2019). Our findings show that fire foci across the Pantanal biome are related to climatic variables, such as lower annual precipitation and higher annual drought indices (SPI) rather than to cattle stocking rates. Therefore, the notion of “cattle firefighting”, a popular concept often discussed in some academic circles, cannot be validated because cattle numbers are unrelated to aboveground phytomass. Gross primary productivity further invalidated the “cattle herbivory” hypothesis because GPP was found to be strongly correlated with cattle density but not with the spatial distribution of fires. Fires throughout the Pantanal are currently aggravated by the presence of livestock and result from a combination of extreme weather events and outdated agricultural practices.

Keywords: biome; biomass; gross primary production; Standardized Precipitation Index (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/16/10187/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/16/10187/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:16:p:10187-:d:889890

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().