Compound dry-hot-fire events connecting Central and Southeastern South America: an unapparent and deadly ripple effect
South America has experienced severe compound drought-heatwaves (CDHW), exacerbating fires. Recently, the unprecedented Pantanal 2020 fire season (P20F), burning a third of the biome, resulted in well-reported local impacts on the ecosystem, economy, and health. Nevertheless, the long-range ripple effects of this event remain unknown. We investigated the P20F-related cascading hazards, integrating models, observational and satellite-based data. P20F-related smoke elevated PM2.5 levels in the SA’s most populated area, exceeding WHO guidelines by up to 600%. Smoke-induced air pollution episodes coincided with widespread heatwaves, amplifying health risks. The mortality burden attributable to this multi-hazard short-term (14 days) exposure was estimated to be 2150 premature deaths (21% increase above expected levels). Our findings highlight that the impacts of CDHW-fires in SA are beyond the local level, implying growing challenges for risk management and public health and the need for governance based on telecoupled flows, linking different systems over multiple scales.
Authors
- Fábio de Oliveira Roque (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5635-0622)
- Judith Johanna Hoelzemann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4865-5351)
- Djacinto Monteiro dos Santos (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5111-3636)
- Lucas S. Menezes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1016-8846)
- Julia A. Rodrigues (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0525-9516)
- Renata Libonati (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7570-1993)
- Leonardo F. Peres (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6820-6935)
- Aline M. de Oliveira
- Ronaldo Albuquerque (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-5995-5893)
- Ediclê S. F. Duarte
Institutions
- Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (BR)
- Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul (BR)
- University of Lisbon (PT)
- University of Évora (PT)
- Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (BR)
- James Cook University (AU)
Publication Details
- Journal
- npj natural hazards.
- Published
- 2024-11-08
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s44304-024-00031-w
- Citations
- 14
- Primary Topic
- Fire effects on ecosystems
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.96
Funders
- Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior
- Forschungszentrum Jülich
- Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico
- Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro
- Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos
- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia