Brazil Preps for More Forest Fires

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.


What will the Brazilian Amazon turn into once global warming makes it drier and fires become more frequent? Woods Hole Research Center and the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) are trying to answer that question by fast forwarding to the future. How? Setting a forest on fire.

IPAM and Woods Hole have been experimenting with fire in Brazil since 2004, in a 370-acre farm in the state of Mato Grosso, Western Brazil. The area is divided in three blocks: The first is the control block, which is never burned. The second is burned every three years, and the third is burned every year. This year’s burn happened from August 28th to 31st.

They hope the burn will help determine whether this forest will survive the increasing number of wildfires—or just turn into degraded scrub or grassland. In order to figure that out, they measure forest structure, which animals and insects survive, what blossoms after a fire, and how the soil fares.

IPAM researcher Oswaldo de Carvalho Jr. says that, in the every-year burn area, degradation is already obvious. “Diversity has decreased, and other species, like common grass, start invading,” he says. Woods Hole researcher Jennifer Balch documented that trend in her field notes. “This year we were really able to capture the grass-fire cycle,” she writes. “Grass invasion via fire leads to higher fuel loads and a more intense future fire, if ignition sources are plentiful in the landscape.”

The group is also trying to answer another question: What are the carbon consequences of this high-frequency burning? So far, they have calculated that combusted organic material from the initial burn has released more than 19,000 pounds of carbon—the same as 9.5 plane trips across the US—per acre.

After a few more years of burning, Carvalho says the scientists will want to take the reverse approach. “We will study how the forest will restore itself without the fire,” he says. He believes that once they understand that, they can help the fire recovery more efficiently—an important lesson to learn to prepare for the dry years ahead.

Guest contributor Gabriela Lessa is a journalist and blogger spending the summer in her native Brazil. Watch for her regular environmental dispatches on The Blue Marble.

PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

payment methods

PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate