10) Finally, @manumachadoeco.bsky.social closed the symposium by talking about developing a new Cerrado degradation framework. Because degradation is typically addressed as loss of biomass in forest ecosystems, her aim is to redefine and quantify degradation within the open landscapes of the Cerrado

9) More broadly, Vera Arruda from @ipam-amazonia.bsky.social presented her work analysing fire regime changes in the Cerrado biome from 1985 to 2022 (using Landsat satellite imagery from the @mapbiomas.bsky.social Fire Collection 2). She focused on recurrence, land-use distribution and area of fires

8) Paulo Bernardino then talked about the use of multispectral and thermal drone imagery to map Cerrado wetlands, focusing on identifying the optimal spatial resolution for accurate classification at Chapada dos Veadeiros. He highlighted the potential of upscaling wetland mapping with satellite data

7) @tashlutz.bsky.social then talked about her work developing a novel method to estimate fuel loads across the Cerrado using a multi-scale data fusion approach. She is quantifying structure and accumulation of surface, herbaceous and woody fuels, providing insights into fire impacts and probability

6) After lunch, @alefidelis.bsky.social re-opened the session by talking about the history of fire management in Brazil. She described the fire experiment at Serra do Trombador and its many cool results, highlighting the importance of long-term collaboration and integration with non-academic actors

5) Prof Vânia Pivello from USP closed our morning session. She spoke about the use of fire as a management tool to stimulate the flowering of Eriocaulaceae by traditional harvesters at Sempre-Vivas National Park, where late-season fires result in slow recovery of plant cover, composition and height

4) Prof Reuber Brandão from the UnB presented his team’s research on the role of termite mounds as wildlife fire refuges in the Cerrado. Because temperature and humidity in termite mounds remain constant during fire, they can hold up to 71 individuals from 14 species of reptiles and amphibians!

3) I then presented the results of my second PhD chapter investigating how the fire regimes at Serra das Araras influence woody productivity of Cerrado trees; and how productivity responses are explained by bark protection and photosynthetic functional traits at high fire intensity @biology.ox.ac.uk

2) Wesley Cruz then presented the research he has led within the CERFogo Team, looking at ecological strategies of trees in response to experimental burning (focusing on resprouting dynamics across regimes and traits influence on tree fire tolerance, recently published at doi.org/10.1002/ajb2...)

1) The symposium was opened by @ioliverasmenor.bsky.social who introduced the conservation challenges of altered fire regimes in the Cerrado and presented an overview of the CERFogo project at Serra das Araras (aiming to monitor the long-term use of fire as a strategy for biodiversity conservation)