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Near-complete loss of fire-resistant primary tropical forest cover in Sumatra and Kalimantan

Tadas Nikonovas, Allan Spessa, Stefan Doerr Orcid Logo, Gareth D. Clay, Symon Mezbahuddin

Communications Earth & Environment, Volume: 1, Issue: 1

Swansea University Authors: Tadas Nikonovas, Allan Spessa, Stefan Doerr Orcid Logo

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Abstract

Deforestation in Sumatra and Kalimantan in recent decades has made increasingly large parts of the region vulnerable to fires. Burning is particularly widespread in deforested peatlands, leading to globally significant carbon emissions. Here we assess primary forest cover loss and fragmentation comb...

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Published in: Communications Earth & Environment
ISSN: 2662-4435
Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2020
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa55781
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spelling 2021-02-04T17:39:05.5225518 v2 55781 2020-11-28 Near-complete loss of fire-resistant primary tropical forest cover in Sumatra and Kalimantan 940b37dbdcb6896884af0887808b089c Tadas Nikonovas Tadas Nikonovas true false 4cd392e40ebc82bd13c0117d07b28d81 Allan Spessa Allan Spessa true false 575eb5094f2328249328b3e43deb5088 0000-0002-8700-9002 Stefan Doerr Stefan Doerr true false 2020-11-28 SGE Deforestation in Sumatra and Kalimantan in recent decades has made increasingly large parts of the region vulnerable to fires. Burning is particularly widespread in deforested peatlands, leading to globally significant carbon emissions. Here we assess primary forest cover loss and fragmentation combined with active fire observations between 2001 and 2019 for the entire region. We find that fires did not penetrate undisturbed primary forest areas deeper than two kilometres from the forest edge irrespective of drought conditions, highlighting the resistance of such forests to burning. However, only 10% of primary forest on peatland and 13% on non-peatlands remain in this category, with the rest being severely fragmented or degraded due to proximity to the forest edge. Fire-resistant forests now cover only 3% of peatlands and 4.5% of non-peatlands in Sumatra and Kalimantan. We also show that 15% and 17% of burning during the 2015 and 2019 fire episodes respectively occurred on land cleared since 2001. Our work demonstrates that protection and regeneration of the remaining contiguous primary forest blocks, as well as peatland restoration, are an urgent necessity for mitigating the impacts of potentially more frequent fire events under future global warming in Indonesia. Journal Article Communications Earth & Environment 1 1 Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2662-4435 deforested peatlands, Deforestation, non-peatlands, Indonesia 18 12 2020 2020-12-18 10.1038/s43247-020-00069-4 COLLEGE NANME Geography COLLEGE CODE SGE Swansea University NERC, NE/P014801/1 2021-02-04T17:39:05.5225518 2020-11-28T13:53:46.6561522 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Geography Tadas Nikonovas 1 Allan Spessa 2 Stefan Doerr 0000-0002-8700-9002 3 Gareth D. Clay 4 Symon Mezbahuddin 5 55781__18909__c458611fa51a441eacf187d1f074e4b8.pdf Nikonovas etal_indonesia forest loss_CommsEE_2020.pdf 2020-12-18T16:40:22.4881939 Output 1313878 application/pdf Version of Record true 2020-12-18T00:00:00.0000000 © The Author(s) 2020. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Near-complete loss of fire-resistant primary tropical forest cover in Sumatra and Kalimantan
spellingShingle Near-complete loss of fire-resistant primary tropical forest cover in Sumatra and Kalimantan
Tadas Nikonovas
Allan Spessa
Stefan Doerr
title_short Near-complete loss of fire-resistant primary tropical forest cover in Sumatra and Kalimantan
title_full Near-complete loss of fire-resistant primary tropical forest cover in Sumatra and Kalimantan
title_fullStr Near-complete loss of fire-resistant primary tropical forest cover in Sumatra and Kalimantan
title_full_unstemmed Near-complete loss of fire-resistant primary tropical forest cover in Sumatra and Kalimantan
title_sort Near-complete loss of fire-resistant primary tropical forest cover in Sumatra and Kalimantan
author_id_str_mv 940b37dbdcb6896884af0887808b089c
4cd392e40ebc82bd13c0117d07b28d81
575eb5094f2328249328b3e43deb5088
author_id_fullname_str_mv 940b37dbdcb6896884af0887808b089c_***_Tadas Nikonovas
4cd392e40ebc82bd13c0117d07b28d81_***_Allan Spessa
575eb5094f2328249328b3e43deb5088_***_Stefan Doerr
author Tadas Nikonovas
Allan Spessa
Stefan Doerr
author2 Tadas Nikonovas
Allan Spessa
Stefan Doerr
Gareth D. Clay
Symon Mezbahuddin
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container_title Communications Earth & Environment
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container_issue 1
publishDate 2020
institution Swansea University
issn 2662-4435
doi_str_mv 10.1038/s43247-020-00069-4
publisher Springer Science and Business Media LLC
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department_str School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Geography{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Geography
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description Deforestation in Sumatra and Kalimantan in recent decades has made increasingly large parts of the region vulnerable to fires. Burning is particularly widespread in deforested peatlands, leading to globally significant carbon emissions. Here we assess primary forest cover loss and fragmentation combined with active fire observations between 2001 and 2019 for the entire region. We find that fires did not penetrate undisturbed primary forest areas deeper than two kilometres from the forest edge irrespective of drought conditions, highlighting the resistance of such forests to burning. However, only 10% of primary forest on peatland and 13% on non-peatlands remain in this category, with the rest being severely fragmented or degraded due to proximity to the forest edge. Fire-resistant forests now cover only 3% of peatlands and 4.5% of non-peatlands in Sumatra and Kalimantan. We also show that 15% and 17% of burning during the 2015 and 2019 fire episodes respectively occurred on land cleared since 2001. Our work demonstrates that protection and regeneration of the remaining contiguous primary forest blocks, as well as peatland restoration, are an urgent necessity for mitigating the impacts of potentially more frequent fire events under future global warming in Indonesia.
published_date 2020-12-18T04:10:14Z
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