Twenty-year impact of fire foci and its relationship with climate variables in Brazilian regions

• Published in: Environmental monitoring and assessment 2022-02, Vol.194 (2), p.90-90, Article 90
• Main Authors: Teodoro, Paulo Eduardo, da Silva Junior, Carlos Antonio, Delgado, Rafael Coll, Lima, Mendelson, Teodoro, Larissa Pereira Ribeiro, Baio, Fabio Henrique Rojo, de Azevedo, Gileno Brito, de Oliveira Sousa Azevedo, Glauce Táıs, de Andréa Pantaleão, Ariane, Capristo-Silva, Guilherme Fernando, Facco, Cassiele Uliana
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Annual rainfall; Atmospheric precipitations; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Brazil; Climate change; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecology; Ecotoxicology; El Nino; El Nino phenomena; El Nino-Southern Oscillation; El Nino-Southern Oscillation event; Emissions; Environment; Environmental Management; Environmental Monitoring; Environmental science; Fire prevention; Fires; Greenhouse gases; Land surface temperature; Monitoring/Environmental Analysis; Multivariate Analysis; Precipitation; Public policy; Rain; Rainfall; Regions; Remote sensing; Southern Oscillation; Standardized precipitation index; Sugarcane; Surface temperature
• ISSN: 0167-6369; 1573-2959
• DOI: 10.1007/s10661-021-09702-x

In recent years, Brazil has become a major global contributor to the occurrence of national fires and greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the fire foci data of the past 20 years to determine their relationship with climatic variables in various Brazilian regions. The variables evaluated included fire foci, land surface temperature, rainfall, and standardized precipitation index, which were obtained via remote sensing from 2000 to 2019. The data were subjected to trend analyses (Mann–Kendall and Pettitt tests) and a multivariate analysis of canonical variables for evaluation. The results showed that the Midwest and North regions had the highest occurrence of fire foci throughout the study period, and that the North region had the highest accumulated annual rainfall. Thus, these regions require specific public policies to prevent future fires. Overall, the Midwest, Southeast, and South regions exhibit significant increasing fire foci tendencies. Our results reveal that this trend is related to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomena, which alter climatic variables such as precipitation, land surface temperature, and the standardized precipitation index. Finally, the sugarcane growing area had a significant linear relationship with fire foci in the Southeast region, especially in the state of São Paulo, the major national sugarcane producer.