Disentangling the contribution of multiple land covers to fire-mediated carbon emissions in Amazonia during the 2010 drought.
In less than 15 years, the Amazon region experienced three major droughts. Links between droughts and fires have been demonstrated for the 1997/1998, 2005, and 2010 droughts. In 2010, emissions of 510 ± 120 Tg C were associated to fire alone in Amazonia. Existing approaches have, however, not yet disentangled the proportional contribution of multiple land cover sources to this total. We develop a novel integration of multisensor and multitemporal satellite-derived data on land cover, active fires, and burned area and an empirical model of fire-induced biomass loss to quantify the extent of burned areas and resulting biomass loss for multiple land covers in Mato Grosso (MT) state, southern Amazonia-the 2010 drought most impacted region. We show that 10.77% (96,855 km2) of MT burned. We estimated a gross carbon emission of 56.21 ± 22.5 Tg C from direct combustion of biomass, with an additional 29.4 ± 10 Tg C committed to be emitted in the following years due to dead wood decay. It is estimated that old-growth forest fires in the whole Brazilian Legal Amazon (BLA) have contributed to 14.81 Tg of C (11.75 Tg C to 17.87 Tg C) emissions to the atmosphere during the 2010 fire season, with an affected area of 27,555 km2. Total C loss from the 2010 fires in MT state and old-growth forest fires in the BLA represent, respectively, 77% (47% to 107%) and 86% (68.2% to 103%) of Brazil's National Plan on Climate Change annual target for Amazonia C emission reductions from deforestation.
National Center for Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters São José dos Campos Brazil; Environmental Change Institute University of Oxford Oxford UK; Remote Sensing Division National Institute for Space Research São José dos Campos Brazil.
Liana Oighenstein
0000-0001-9545-5136
LO
Anderson
Remote Sensing Division National Institute for Space Research São José dos Campos Brazil; College of Life and Environmental Sciences University of Exeter Exeter UK.
Luiz E O C
LE
Aragão
School of Geography University of Leeds Leeds UK.
Manuel
M
Gloor
Remote Sensing Division National Institute for Space Research São José dos Campos Brazil.
Egídio
E
Arai
Remote Sensing Division National Institute for Space Research São José dos Campos Brazil.
Marcos
M
Adami
Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Pasadena California USA; Institute of Environment University of California Los Angeles California USA.
Sassan S
SS
Saatchi
Environmental Change Institute University of Oxford Oxford UK.
Yadvinder
Y
Malhi
Remote Sensing Division National Institute for Space Research São José dos Campos Brazil.
Yosio E
YE
Shimabukuro
Lancaster Environment Centre Lancaster University Lancaster UK.
Jos
J
Barlow
Lancaster Environment Centre Lancaster University Lancaster UK.
Erika
E
Berenguer
Remote Sensing Division National Institute for Space Research São José dos Campos Brazil.
Valdete
V
Duarte
Amazonia; biomass; carbon emission; drought; fire