Non fire-adapted dry forest of Northwestern Madagascar: Escalating and devastating trends revealed by Landsat timeseries and GEDI lidar data.

ABSTRACT: Ankarafantsika National Park (ANP), the last significant remnant of Northwestern Madagascar's tropical dry forests, is facing rapid degradation due to increased incidences of fire. This poses severe threats to biodiversity, local livelihoods, and vital ecosystem services. Our study, conducted on 3,052-ha of ANP's pristine forests, employed advanced remote-sensing techniques to assess fire impacts during the past 37 years. Our aims were to understand historical fire patterns and evaluate forest recovery and susceptibility to repeated fires following initial burns. Using data from multiple Landsat satellite sensors, we constructed a time series of fire events since 1985, which revealed no fire activity before 2014. The Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) lidar sensor data were use

SUBMITTER: Percival JEH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10878523 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature