TY - JOUR
T1 - Monitoring deforestation with MODIS Active Fires in Neotropical dry forests
T2 - An analysis of local-scale assessments in Mexico, Brazil and Bolivia
AU - Portillo-Quintero, Carlos
AU - Sanchez-Azofeifa, Arturo
AU - Marcos do Espirito-Santo, Mario
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was carried out with the aid of a grant from the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) CRN II # 021 that is supported by the US National Science Foundation (Grant GEO-0452325 ).
PY - 2013/10
Y1 - 2013/10
N2 - The detection of vegetation fires using remote sensing has proven useful for highlighting areas undergoing rapid conversion in humid forests, but not in tropical dry forest (TDF). To further understand this relationship, we explored the correlation between MODIS Active Fires and forest cover change at local scales using 3×3km sampling grids in three TDF landscapes in Bolivia; Mexico, and Brazil. Our analysis showed no single overall correlation among sites between the frequency of fires reported by the MODIS Active Fire Mapping product and forest cover change. Also, aggregated patterns of fire occurrence in Brazil and Bolivia did not correspond to areas with high percentage of forest loss, which indicates that the fire/deforestation relationship in TDF is not apparent in a simple fire frequency map. However, statistically significant correlations were found in sampling boxes with 50-60%, 50-70%, 50-95% forest cover at "initial state" of the time series in the Mexican site, Bolivian site and Brazilian site, respectively. Our findings suggest that complex interactions between anthropogenic fire-use, satellite-detected fires, and deforestation in highly fragmented TDF landscapes are difficult to describe at regional scales and might only be possible to analyze using finer resolution sampling grids.
AB - The detection of vegetation fires using remote sensing has proven useful for highlighting areas undergoing rapid conversion in humid forests, but not in tropical dry forest (TDF). To further understand this relationship, we explored the correlation between MODIS Active Fires and forest cover change at local scales using 3×3km sampling grids in three TDF landscapes in Bolivia; Mexico, and Brazil. Our analysis showed no single overall correlation among sites between the frequency of fires reported by the MODIS Active Fire Mapping product and forest cover change. Also, aggregated patterns of fire occurrence in Brazil and Bolivia did not correspond to areas with high percentage of forest loss, which indicates that the fire/deforestation relationship in TDF is not apparent in a simple fire frequency map. However, statistically significant correlations were found in sampling boxes with 50-60%, 50-70%, 50-95% forest cover at "initial state" of the time series in the Mexican site, Bolivian site and Brazilian site, respectively. Our findings suggest that complex interactions between anthropogenic fire-use, satellite-detected fires, and deforestation in highly fragmented TDF landscapes are difficult to describe at regional scales and might only be possible to analyze using finer resolution sampling grids.
KW - Deforestation
KW - Fires
KW - MODIS
KW - Tropical dry forests
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84880277681&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jaridenv.2013.06.002
DO - 10.1016/j.jaridenv.2013.06.002
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84880277681
VL - 97
SP - 150
EP - 159
JO - Journal of Arid Environments
JF - Journal of Arid Environments
SN - 0140-1963
ER -