Elsevier

Flora

Volume 268, July 2020, 151612
Flora

Zero-fire: Not possible nor desirable in the Cerrado of Brazil

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.flora.2020.151612Get rights and content

Highlights

  • A strong debate is ongoing about fire effects on natural ecosystems.

  • While a threat to rain forests, fire is a natural factor in savannas.

  • The wise use of fire depends on understanding this difference.

  • Savannas are not the result of forest degradation by fire.

  • Fire suppression often brings negative consequences to the Cerrado.

Abstract

Fire has been a natural force modulating the vegetation of the Brazilian Cerrado since long before the first humans arrived in this region about 12 thousand years BP. Cerrado plants are, therefore, adapted to fire and some of them depend on fire to maintain their reproduction and survival. However, after the use of fire as a tool to destroy vast extents of forests in the last centuries, Brazilians in general formed a very negative opinion about the use of fire and burning native vegetation was prohibited in the country. Although this decision was effective in protecting tropical forests, the zero-fire policy has been quite negative in the Cerrado. Fire suppression in Cerrado reserves has caused a dramatic loss of biodiversity at landscape level (homogenizing the vegetation structure), at species level (leading non-tree species to local extinction) and likely at population level (sexual reproduction impaired). Furthermore, fuel accumulation over several years without fire increases the risks of catastrophic firestorms that will inevitably occur. Such negative consequences of fire suppression in the Cerrado have not been noticed even among ecologists, including myself in early career and until recently. The biased tree-and-carbon perspective of environmental campaigns and ecological studies have reinforced the misunderstanding of fire effects in Cerrado vegetation. Both neglect that the absolute majority of Cerrado plant species, as well as associated fauna and ecosystem services, depend upon open vegetation-structures which are mostly maintained by fire.

Section snippets

Author contribution

The manuscript was totally conceived and written by the author, GD.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to my former PhD students, Natashi A.L. Pilon and Mário G.B. Cava, and also to Samuel Flake, for their helpful comments on the draft of this manuscript, later improved by Fernando Silveira and an anonymous reviewer. I thank especially Dora Souza Dias, for preparing the figures. This material is partially based upon research supported by the US National Science Foundation - NSF (grant # DEB1354943). The author was funded by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e

References (70)

  • G.B. Assis

    Invasão do campo cerrado por braquiária (Urochloa decumbens): perdas de diversidade e técnicas de restauração. PhD Thesis

    (2017)
  • B.E. Beisner et al.

    Alternative stable states in ecology

    Front. Ecol. Environ.

    (2003)
  • W.J. Bond et al.

    Confronting complexity: fire policy choices in South African savanna parks

    Int. J. Wildland Fire

    (2003)
  • W.J. Bond et al.

    Fire and Plants

    (1996)
  • F. Bourlière et al.

    The ecology of tropical savannas

    Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst.

    (1970)
  • D.M.J.S. Bowman et al.

    Forest fire management, climate change, and the risk of catastrophic carbon losses

    Front. Ecol. Environ.

    (2013)
  • E. Cardoso et al.

    Mudanças fitofisionômicas no Cerrado: 18 anos de sucessão ecológica na Estação Ecológica do Panga, Uberlândia-MG

    Caminhos de Geografia

    (2009)
  • M.G. Cava et al.

    Abandoned pastures cannot spontaneously recover the attributes of old-growth savannas

    J. Appl. Ecol.

    (2018)
  • L.M. Coutinho

    “Contribuição ao Conhecimento do Papel Ecológico das Queimadas na Floração de Espécies do Cerrado.” Livre Docente’s thesis

    (1976)
  • L.M. Coutinho

    Aspectos ecológicos do fogo no cerrado: II. As queimadas e a dispersão de sementes

    Bol. Bot.

    (1977)
  • L.M. Coutinho

    Ecological effects of fire in Brazilian cerrado

  • L.M. Coutinho

    Fire in the ecology of the Brazilian Cerrado

  • K.C. Dalle-Laste et al.

    Biodiversity responses to land-use and restoration in a global biodiversity hotspot: ant communities in Brazilian Cerrado

    Austral Ecol.

    (2019)
  • P. Dansereau

    The distribution and structure of Brazilian forests

    Forest Chron.

    (1947)
  • C.L. Dent et al.

    Multiple states in river and lake ecosystems

    Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

    (2002)
  • G. Durigan et al.

    Successional changes in cerrado and cerrado/forest ecotonal vegetation in western São Paulo State, Brazil, 1962–2000

    Edinb. J. Bot.

    (2006)
  • G. Durigan et al.

    The need for a consistent fire policy for Cerrado conservation

    J. Appl. Ecol.

    (2016)
  • G. Durigan et al.

    Fitossociologia e evolução da densidade da vegetação do cerrado, Assis

    SP. Bol. Técn. IF

    (1987)
  • G. Eiten et al.

    Effect of long-term periodic fire on plant diversity in a cerrado region

  • M.G. Ferri

    Observações sobre Lagoa Santa

    Ceres

    (1943)
  • A. Fidelis et al.

    The year 2017: megafires and management in the cerrado

    Fire

    (2018)
  • A. Fidelis et al.

    From ashes to flowers: a savanna sedge initiates flowers 24 h after fire

    Ecology

    (2019)
  • N.C. Fiedler et al.

    Efeito de incêndios florestais na estrutura e composição florística de uma área de cerrado sensu stricto na Fazenda Água Limpa-DF

    Rev. Árvore.

    (2004)
  • R. Goodland et al.

    Ecologia do Cerrado

    (1979)
  • M. Hirota et al.

    Global resilience of tropical forest and savanna to critical transitions

    Science

    (2011)
  • Cited by (0)

    View full text