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Fire Scars on Amazonian Trees: Exploring the Cryptic Fire History of the Ilha de Maracá
Author(s) -
Barlow Jos,
Silveira Juliana M.,
Cochrane Mark A.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
biotropica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.813
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1744-7429
pISSN - 0006-3606
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-7429.2010.00646.x
Subject(s) - amazonian , geography , ecology , charcoal , scars , tropics , tropical forest , amazon rainforest , fire history , biology , climate change , medicine , materials science , surgery , metallurgy
ABSTRACT The presence of charcoal in the soils and fire scars on 8.2 percent of tree stems strongly suggest that one of the best studied Amazonian research localities (the Ilha de Maracá in Roraima, Brazil) has burned. The patterns and images of fire scars that we present here could help researchers explore the burn history of other tropical forests, which has important implications for interpreting their present‐day ecology.