Celso H. L. Silva-Junior

Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) · Board of Science

Amazonia is home to more than half of the world’s remaining tropical forests, playing a key role as reservoirs of carbon and biodiversity. However, whether at a slower or faster pace, continued deforestation causes forest fragmentation in this region. Thus, understanding the relationship between forest fragmentation and fire incidence and intensity...

Extreme droughts in Amazonia cause anomalous increase in fire occurrence, disrupting the stability of environmental, social, and economic systems. Thus, understanding how droughts affect fire patterns in this region is essential for anticipating and planning actions for remediation of possible impacts. Focused on the Brazilian Amazon biome, we inve...

The year 2019 in Brazil was marked by environmental setbacks, which catalyzed the increase of illegal deforestation and fire rates in the Brazilian Amazon. In the Amazon region of Maranhão state, original forest cover diminished from 25 % (24,700 km 2) in 2016 to 24 % (23,967 km 2) in 2019, and 6,038 km 2 of remaining forests were degraded by fires...

The restoration and reforestation of 12 million hectares of forests by 2030 are amongst the leading mitigation strategies for reducing carbon emissions within the Brazilian Nationally Determined Contribution targets assumed under the Paris Agreement. Understanding the dynamics of forest cover, which steeply decreased between 1985 and 2018 throughou...

Deforestation is the primary driver of carbon losses in tropical forests, but it does not operate alone. Forest fragmentation, a resulting feature of the deforestation process, promotes indirect carbon losses induced by edge effect. This process is not implicitly considered by policies for reducing carbon emissions in the tropics. Here, we used a r...

Societal Impact Statement The physiological effects of increased atmospheric CO2 (CO2 fertilization) on intact forests are generally seen as a process that might buffer them against the impacts of climate change. However, CO2 fertilization can also cause adverse changes in forest conditions, such as alterations in species composition and reduced ec...

Understanding the limits between fire as an ecologic component and vegetation degradation is crucial for the management of natural areas. This study proposes a spatial analysis to identify patterns between fire recurrence and non-fire intervals, evaluating the change in biomass stock in two types of savannah in Maranhão: forested and wooded. Firstl...

The Amazon rainforest plays a crucial role in climate regulation, being responsible for a significant role in the carbon cycle on a global scale. However, deforestation and fires are determining vectors for forest degradation in the ecosystem, resulting in the loss of biodiversity and increased greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, this study aimed to ev...

Integrating Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) and Hyperspectral Imaging (HSI) enhances the assessment of tropical forest degradation and regeneration, which is crucial for conservation and climate mitigation strategies. This study optimized procedures using combined airborne LiDAR, HSI data, and machine learning algorithms across 12 sites in the...

A Amazônia Maranhense é um reservatório de carbono essencial, armazenando grandes quantidades de CO2, que é vital para combater o aquecimento global. Este estudo usou tecnologias de sensoriamento remoto e dados de satélite para avaliar quantitativamente o carbono nas florestas tropicais da região O objetivo principal foi quantificar e avaliar econo...

Meeting global climate commitments and avoiding severe global warming requires drastic reductions in emissions and large-scale removals of atmospheric carbon dioxide1. Forest regrowth offers scalable and cost-effective carbon removal,2,3 but rates vary substantially by location and age of forest stand4,5. Here we generate pixel level (~1-km2) Chapm...

Full-waveform LiDAR (FWF) offers a promising advantage over other technologies to represent the vertical canopy structure of secondary successions in the Amazon region, as the waveform encapsulates the properties of all elements intercepting the emitted beam. In this study, we investigated modifications in the vertical structure of the Amazonian se...

O Estado do Maranhão registra altos índices de desmatamento e focos de queimadas, especialmente nas regiões sul e sudeste, onde os biomas Cerrado e Amazônico estão presentes. Diante desse contexto, destaca-se o município de Amarante, localizado na região sul do estado, que abriga o segundo maior rebanho de gado e desempenha um papel significativo c...

Anthropogenic disturbances stand as the primary driver of degradation in the remaining Amazon forests, posing a significant threat to their future. Notable among these disturbances are edge effects, timber extraction, fire, extreme droughts and temperatures, which have been intensified by human-induced climate change. A pilot study aiming to integr...

The Brazilian Atlantic Forest (AF) covers 13% of Brazil but retains only 26% of its original forest area. Utilizing a Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis (MSPA), we generated 30-m spatial resolution fragmentation maps for old-growth and secondary forests across the AF. We quantified landscape fragmentation patterns and carbon (C) dynamics over 3...

Monitoring forest aboveground biomass (AGB) is essential for quantifying the carbon cycle and mitigating climate change. Tropical secondary forests are significant carbon sinks that sequester large amounts of carbon dioxide. While recent studies have attempted to estimate the AGB recovery rates in tropical forests, considerable uncertainty remains...

The Editorial "Remote Sensing of Environmental Changes in the Neotropical Region" discusses the use of remote sensing for monitoring environmental changes, focusing on the Neotropical region. It covers the region's biodiversity and ecosystems, human-induced environmental changes, and the role of remote sensing in understanding these changes. The ed...

In this paper, we extend and combine the work of two previously published studies identifying secondary forest age (Silva et al., 2020) and their associated aboveground carbon recovery rates (Heinrich et al., 2021), publishing the full and updated temporal record of these datasets in a user-friendly toolkit called “RE:Growth” (https://ee-regrowth.p...

Tropical rainforests from the Brazilian Amazon are frequently degraded by logging, fire, edge effects and minor unpaved roads. However, mapping the extent of degradation remains challenging because of the lack of frequent high-spatial resolution satellite observations, occlusion of understory disturbances, quick recovery of leafy vegetation, and li...

Amazon forests are the largest forests in the tropics and play a fundamental role for regional and global ecosystem service provision. However, they are under threat primarily from deforestation. Amazonia's carbon balance trend reflects the condition of its forests. There are different approaches to estimate large-scale carbon balances, including t...

Tree dominances influence forest fuel loads. This study aimed to identify whether tree dominances of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve correspond to different fuel beds. The fuel loads of three tree dominances were quantified, and then we used the Fuel Fire Tool software to obtain the fire potential. In addition, we burned the litter layer to...

Vegetation fires represent a major disturbance in the tropics, with South America notable for having both fire-sensitive (e [...]

Esta nota apresenta uma nova metodologia, baseada em produtos geoespaciais, derivados de imagens de satélite e integrados por meio de inteligência artificial, para priorizar as áreas para o combate ao desmatamento na Amazônia, com antecedência de meses antes do evento. Na presente nota técnica, objetivamos (1) avaliar a concordância do mapa contend...

e 6 Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, Estrada Dr. Altino Bondensan, 500, Eugênio de Melo, São José dos Campos-SP, cep 12247-016; fabiano.morelli@inpe.br RESUMO A detecção e mapeamento de queimadas e incêndios florestais tem registrados grandes avanços nos últimos anos. Os focos de fogo ativo ainda são a mais importante fonte para identific...

O estado do Pará contribuiu com mais de 39% do desmatamento na Amazônia Legal em 2021. O avanço da supressão da vegetação primária e secundária compromete o sequestro e o estoque de carbono, importante função desses ecossistemas para a regulação climática do planeta. Diante deste problema, o estado do Pará criou a instrução normativa de n° 08 de 28...

Studies showed that Brazilian Amazon indigenous territories (ITs) are efficient models for preserving forests by reducing deforestation, fires, and related carbon emissions. Considering the importance of ITs for conserving socio-environmental and cultural diversity and the recent climb in the Brazilian Amazon deforestation, we used official remote...

Tropical forests provide essential ecosystem services, including carbon storage, biodiversity, and climate regulation. However, deforestation and forest degradation compromise the ability of forests to provide ecosystem services, including the loss of carbon stocks that go into the atmosphere. Here we test the hypothesis that the edge effect and fo...

Brazil contains some of the most fire-prone regions in the world, and this motivates the development of a fire probability forecast system. CEMADEN has collaborations with the states of Acre (AC), Goiás (GO), Maranhão (MA) and Mato Grosso do Sul (MS), which use the CEMADEN fire probability forecast data to guide prevention and mitigation actions. I...

Forest degradation is a major issue and a key component of tropical forests and carbon emissions. In this study, we use repeated Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) data to quantify carbon losses in degraded forests due to logging at the Mato Grosso state rainforests. We identified logged areas using Planet Norway's International Climate and Forests Init...

The globally important carbon sink of intact, old-growth tropical humid forests is declining because of climate change, deforestation and degradation from fire and logging1–3. Recovering tropical secondary and degraded forests now cover about 10% of the tropical forest area⁴, but how much carbon they accumulate remains uncertain. Here we quantify t...

Careful management of deforested Amazonian land cannot replace, but must complement, efforts to preserve the rainforest. Sustainable agricultural practices that promote diverse uses can help minimise climate and environmental impacts. Different land uses in deforested regions of Amazonia can have very different impacts on the climate and environme...

Approximately 2.5 × 106 square kilometers of the Amazon forest are currently degraded by fire, edge effects, timber extraction, and/or extreme drought, representing 38% of all remaining forests in the region. Carbon emissions from this degradation total up to 0.2 petagrams of carbon per year (Pg C year-1), which is equivalent to, if not greater tha...

Monitoring changes in tree cover for assessment of deforestation is a premise for policies to reduce carbon emission in the tropics. Here, a U-net deep learning model was used to map monthly tropical tree cover in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso between 2015 and 2021 using 5 m spatial resolution Planet NICFI satellite images. The accuracy of the...

Studies showed that Brazilian Amazon indigenous territories (Its) are efficient models for preserving forests by reducing deforestation, fires, and related carbon emissions. Here, we used official remote sensing datasets to analyze deforestation inside and outside indigenous territories within Brazil's Amazon biome in the 2013-2021 period. We found...

Forest degradation caused by logging and fire disturbances affect large areas of tropical forests every year. However, their true extent is not quantified, because conventional monitoring systems do not accurately map these disturbances or provide correct attributions. Having a monitoring system that can map areas and attributions of forest disturb...

Monitoring changes in tree cover for rapid assessment of deforestation is considered the critical component of any climate mitigation policy for reducing carbon. Here, we map tropical tree cover and deforestation between 2015 and 2022 using 5 m spatial resolution Planet NICFI satellite images over the state of Mato Grosso (MT) in Brazil and a U-net...

Humanity depends on the processes and resources of natural ecosystems, such as natural grassland fields and forests. These ecosystems depend on pollinators, especially bees, to ensure crossbreeding and plant productivity. Faced with deforestation and the fragmentation of forest remnants, meliponiculture plays an important role in biodiversity conse...

A view-only version of the paper is available at the link: https://rdcu.be/cZT77

In the Amazon, deforestation and climate change lead to increased vulnerability to forest degradation, threatening its existing carbon stocks and its capacity as a carbon sink. We use satellite L‐Band Vegetation Optical Depth (L‐VOD) data that provide an integrated (top‐down) estimate of biomass carbon to track changes over 2011–2019. Because the s...

A fusão de produtos de fogo podem refinar significativamente a identificação de áreas queimadas, e partindo disso avaliamos a possibilidade de uso de três produtos, MCD64A1, GABAM e Fire_CCI, para os anos de 2012 a 2019 na amazônia maranhense. Conseguimos trazer aumentos na identificação da área queimada de 24% podendo chegar até 50% a mais que o M...

Humanity depends on the processes and resources of natural ecosystems, such as natural grassland fields and forests. These ecosystems depend on pollinators, especially bees, to ensure crossbreeding and plant productivity. Faced with deforestation and the fragmentation of forest remnants, meliponiculture plays an important role in biodiversity conse...

Aim The aim was to evaluate fire activity for the entire Amazon and Amazon regions within each country/department from 2003 to 2020, assessing the potential contributions of drought and deforestation and contrasting 2020 with the previous years. Location Amazonia sensu lato . Time period Annually from 2003 to 2020. Major taxa studied Terrestrial...

MATOPIBA is an agricultural frontier, where fires are essential for its biodiversity maintenance. However, the increase in its recurrence and intensity, as well as accidental fires can lead to socioeconomic and environmental losses. Due to this dual relationship with fire, near real-time (NRT) fire management is required throughout the region. In t...

While Brazil publicly committed to reduce deforestation in Amazonia at the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26), the Brazilian parliament is moving toward weakening environmental laws. Deforestation rates continue ascending, reaching in 2021 the highest value since 2006 (13,235 km2). To overcome this paradox, strategies to curb deforestation are...

Tropical forests provide essential environmental services to human well-being. In the world, Brazil has the largest continuous area of these forests. However, in the state of Maranhão, in the eastern Amazon, only 24% of the original forest cover remains. We integrated and analyzed active fires, burned area, land use and land cover, rainfall, and su...

This Report provides a comprehensive, objective, open, transparent, systematic, and rigorous scientific assessment of the state of the Amazon’s ecosystems, current trends, and their implications for the long-term well-being of the region, as well as opportunities and policy relevant options for conservation and sustainable development.

This Report provides a comprehensive, objective, open, transparent, systematic, and rigorous scientific assessment of the state of the Amazon’s ecosystems, current trends, and their implications for the long-term well-being of the region, as well as opportunities and policy relevant options for conservation and sustainable development.

Brazil has the second-largest area of man-grove cover in the world (1), including theworld’s largest continuous mangroves (2).These ecosystems provide food security forcoastal populations; habitat for terrestrial,bird, and fish species; and carbon seques-tration (3). However, Brazil’s mangrovesare in peril. In 2020, the Brazilian gov-ernment approv...

Quantifying fuel load over large areas is essential to support integrated fire management initiatives in fire-prone regions to preserve carbon stock, biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. It also allows a better understanding of global climate regulation as a potential carbon sink or source. Large area assessments usually require data from spaceb...

Fire is one of the main anthropogenic drivers that threatens the Amazon. Despite the clear link between rainfall and fire, the spatial and temporal relationship between these variables is still poorly understood in the Amazon. Here, we stratified the Amazon basin according to the dry season onset/end and investigated its relationship with the spati...

In recent years, Brazilian science has been hit by repeated budget cuts (1–5), including one in October that reduced a proposal for supplemental science funding by 87% (4). These cuts threaten ongoing and future science and technology projects, including scholarship funding for early-career researchers. Despite precarious funding for science compar...

This chapter discusses the main drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in the Amazon, particularly agricultural expansion, road construction, mining, oil and gas development, forest fires, edge effects, logging, and hunting. It also examines these activities’ impacts and synergies between them.

This Report provides a comprehensive, objective, open, transparent, systematic, and rigorous scientific assessment of the state of the Amazon’s ecosystems, current trends, and their implications for the long-term well-being of the region, as well as opportunities and policy relevant options for conservation and sustainable development.

Timely spatially explicit warning of areas with high fire occurrence probability is an important component of strategic plans to prevent and monitor fires within South American (SA) Protected Areas (PAs). In this study, we present a five-level alert system, which combines both climatological and anthropogenic factors, the two main drivers of fires...

Carbon emissions from fires can invalidate efforts to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation This paper aims to present the possible relationship between non-photosynthetic vegetation (NPV), the intensity of burning (dNBR) and fire radiative power (FRP) in southeastern Legal Amazon. For this purpose, two OLI/Landsat 8 images, corresponding to s...

Free-to-read at: https://rdcu.be/cw7ua; Portuguese and Spanish versions of this paper are provided at: https://github.com/celsohlsj/ngeo_correspondence

Access on: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4903340

As the world’s largest tropical wetland (UNESCO 2020), the Brazilian Pantanal covers an area of 150,355 km2, approximately 62% of United Kingdom territory. In January 2020, 3,506 fires were detected in the region, an increase of 302% in relation to the 2012-2019 average for the same month (Fig. 1a). Fire occurrence continued with an accelerated pac...

While the climate and human-induced forest degradation is increasing in the Amazon, fire impacts on forest dynamics remain understudied in the wetter regions of the basin, which are susceptible to large wildfires only during extreme droughts. To address this gap, we installed burned and unburned plots immediately after a wildfire in the northern Pu...

Tropical savanna ecosystems play a major role in the seasonality of the global carbon cycle. However, their ability to store and sequester carbon is uncertain due to combined and intermingling effects of anthropogenic activities and climate change, which impact wildfire regimes and vegetation dynamics. Accurate measurements of tropical savanna vege...

Brazil's Cerrado region, a tropical savanna ecosystem globally recognized for its rich and endemic biodiversity (1) and its importance in water regulation (2), faces escalating threats to its environmental services due to deforestation (3). The state of Maranhão, with an area of 33 million hectares, contains both Cerrado (65%) and Amazon (35%) biom...