FIRE IN APA CHAPADA DO ARARIPE: RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CLIMATE VARIABLES, THE OCCURRENCE OF FIRE AND ITS DEGREE OF SEVERITY
Fires, climatic variables, degree of severity.
Fire is a system process that has operated for millions of years and is recognized as a recurrent action. Resulting in fire regimes that have direct ecological effects and act as selective forces. Furthermore, these regimes are important at multiple levels of biological organization, influencing populations, communities and ecosystems. However, over the years, human action has altered this natural process of fire, thus enhancing climate effects, such as the emission of greenhouse gases, forest degradation, soil degradation and human health problems. In this sense, the present study analyzes the relationship between the occurrence of fires and climate variables in the APA of Chapada do Araripe in Ceará, using geospatial tools in the delimitation and characterization of areas with scars from fires according to the degree of severity, within a scenario of 20 years of analysis, between 2002-2021. According to the observed climatic variables, it is likely to establish a significant relationship between them and the gradual increase in hot spots in the APA region of Ceará, where the seasonal distribution of means directly favors the occurrence of fires (temperature and wind speed, El Niño), and inversely proportional (precipitation, relative humidity, La Niña). Mapping the degree of severity in the APA showed relevant results when associated with burning events recorded by the main means of information, where it was possible to visualize the extent of the area affected by the fire and demonstrate the scars left under the soil and how regeneration occurred over the years. following. Diversities in the predominant vegetative characteristics of the region highlight how much the relationship climate-fire and vegetation-fire play a fundamental role in the regime adopted by him. The importance of analyzing several variables together is highlighted, as well as the use of a broad time series that covers different climatic events.