RT Journal Article
T1 A review of wildfires effects across the Gran Chaco region
A1 Vidal Riveros, Cristina
A1 Souza Alonso, Pablo
A1 Bravo, Sandra
A1 Laino, Rafaela
A1 Ngo Bieng, Marie Ange
AB Fire is a natural element of some tropical dry ecosystems. However, during the last decades, fire occurrence has become more frequent and intense due, in part, to climate change and land use transformation. This is the case in the Gran Chaco Americano, one of the largest dry forests all over the world that extends across Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil. Fire has shaped the Gran Chaco landscape since ancient times, but today, as in many other regions, the pattern, frequency, severity and intensity are being dramatically altered. Based on information collected mainly over the last two decades, this paper presents a detailed review of the available literature on the fire regime across the Gran Chaco region. Here, we present a multi- disciplinary understanding considering fire behavior and dynamics in the study ecosystem within a very specific ecological, administrative and historical framework. A noteworthy aspect of this review indicates the clear imbalance between regions in terms of available literature; while information about the Argentine Chaco is abundant, the literature for the Paraguayan or Bolivian Chaco is practically non-existent. The rainfall gradient and drought periods are key climatic drivers of fire ignitions while cattle ranching is the main socioeconomic activity of this region and key precursor of forest fires. In general, a substantial part of the available information focused on ecological aspects of the fire regime as the effect of fires on plant functional traits such as bark thickness, resprouting ability and flammability patterns. Other post fire effects on soil, invasive species, herbivory and soil seed banks have been also explored in detail to understand ecosystem recovery and research needs. We finally highlight current necessities and future prospects, mainly related to soil burn severity (SBS), invasive species and wildlife impact. Although our study specifically focused on changes in the fire regime of the Gran Chaco, some generalities were further discussed about fire regimes that could be relevant for diverse fire-sensitive ecosystems in the tropics
PB Elsevier
SN 0378-1127
YR 2023
FD 2023
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/33051
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/33051
LA eng
NO Forest Ecology and Management, Volume 549, 2023, 121432
NO This publication has been produced with the financial support of the Government of Canada through the International Model Forest Network (IMFN) Secretariat's RESTAURacción initiative, which has as its objectives the restoration of degraded and/or post-fire forest landscapes and the promotion of gender equality in natural resource management processes at the landscape level in Latin America
DS Minerva
RD 24 abr 2026