Synergistic interactions between habitat fragmentation and fire in evergreen tropical forests

The growing prevalence of fragmentation and fire in tropical forests makes it imperative to quant fy changes in these disturbances and to understand the ways in which they interact across the landscape. I used a multitemporal series of Landsat images to study the incidence and coincidence of fire and fragmentation in two areas of Para state in the eastern Brazilian Amazon,, Tailandia and Paragominase. In both areas, deforestation and forest fires were quantified for time series of 6-10years. The Tailandia study area typifies a landscape with The herringbone pattern of government-settled colonists, and the Paragominas area is dominated by large cattle ranches. In both areas, over 90% of the forests affected by fire were associated with form est edges. Although most burned forest occurred within 500 m of forest edges, some fires occurred in deep forest, several kilometers from any edge. The obvious synergism between forest fragmentation and fire poses serious risks to tropical ecosystems and has important implications for land management.