26.12.2020 Fires also threaten Brazil’s second largest ecosystem It is not only in the Amazon that forests are burning: According to a study carried out in collaboration with the University of Hohenheim, climate change and misinformed land management are endangering the even more sensitive riparian forests. In recent years, wildfires have become increasingly frequent in the Brazilian savannahs, also severely affecting the riparian forests. Investigations carried out with a scientist from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart have now shown how great the threat to these sensitive ecosystems actually is: “The loss here is even worse than in the tropical rainforest of the Amazon, because the area affected is larger,” said Dr. Anna Abrahão. Tropical savannahs are among the world’s most biodiverse habitats and one of the most threatened ecosystems. In addition to the typical grasslands and shrublands, there are also evergreen forests, especially along the damp banks of streams and rivers. The results of the study, conducted by 20 researchers from various Brazilian and international institutions, have now been published in the Journal of Applied Ecology: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.13794