Seasonal spatial-temporal trends of vegetation recovery in burned areas across Africa

作者：Oswaldo Maillard, Natasha Ribeiro, Amanda Armstrong, Ana I. Ribeiro‐Barros, Samora M. Andrew, Lucy Amissah, Zeinab Shirvani, Jonathan Ilunga Muledi, Omid Abdi, Huáscar Azurduy, João M. N. Silva, Stephen Syampungani, Hastings Shamaoma, Victorino Américo Buramuge · 发表于：PLoS ONE · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1371/journal.pone.0316472 · 被引用次数：8 · 研究领域：Fire effects on ecosystems、Remote Sensing in Agriculture、Rangeland and Wildlife Management

Africa is entering a new fire paradigm, with climate change and increasing anthropogenic pressure shifting the patterns of frequency and severity. Thus, it is crucial to use available information and technologies to understand vegetation dynamics during the post-fire recovery processes. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the seasonal spatio-temporal trends of vegetation recovery in response to fires across Africa, from 2001 to 2020. Non-parametric tests were used to analyze MODIS Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) products comparing the following three-month seasonal periods: December-February (DJF), March-May (MAM), June-August (JJA), and September-November (SON). We evaluated the seasonal spatial trends of NDVI in burned areas by hemisphere, territory, or country, and by land cover types, and fire recurrences, with a focus on forested areas. The relationships between the seasonal spatial trend and three climatic variables (i.e. maximum air temperature, precipitation, and vapor pressure deficit) were then analyzed. For the 8.7 million km2 burned in Africa over the past 22 years, we observed several seasonal spatial trends of NDVI. The highest proportions of areas with increasing trend (p < 0.05) was recorded in MAM for both hemispheres, with 22.0% in the Northern Hemisphere and 17.4% in the Southern Hemisphere. In contrast, areas with decreasing trends (p < 0.05), showed 4.8-5.5% of burned area in the Northern Hemisphere, peaking in JJA, while the So...