Fire events in South America are becoming more extensive and frequent as climate extremes and human pressures increase, and even repeatedly occurring in some areas within decades. However, the relationship between recurring fires and vegetation dynamics remains unclear. Here, we extracted the number of fire occurrences using burned area satellite product and analysed the relationship between recurring fires and vegetation dynamics with remote sensing land use and vegetation index datasets in South America. We show that approximately 1.39 × 106 km2 of burnt area has experienced recurring fires during 2001–2020. More than half of burnt area of recurring fires occurred in savannahs with remaining burnt area in grasslands, forests and croplands. Although forests tended to be less susceptible to recurring fires among all vegetation types, their coverage loss with recurring fires was the greatest. The greater proportion of forest conversion to croplands concurred with more recurring fires. Conversely, the coverage of croplands and grasslands gained the most with recurring fires. In the areas without vegetation conversion, more frequent recurring fires further suppressed canopy greenness and density, even in fire‐adapted savannahs and grasslands. Our results suggest that recurring fires and land use change are generally coincident, reflecting the intense pressure of human activities on natural vegetation in South America. Thus, coordinated efforts on vegetation conservation and sustainable management of human‐induced burning in the region are urgently needed.

中文翻译：

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南美洲反复发生的火灾与土地利用变化的一致性

随着极端气候和人类压力的加大，南美洲的火灾事件变得更加广泛和频繁，甚至在几十年内在某些地区反复发生。然而，反复发生的火灾与植被动态之间的关系仍不清楚。在这里，我们利用烧毁面积卫星产品提取了火灾发生次数，并利用南美洲遥感土地利用和植被指数数据集分析了反复发生的火灾与植被动态之间的关系。我们证明大约 1.39 × 106公里2的烧毁面积在 2001 年至 2020 年期间反复发生火灾。反复发生的火灾一半以上的过火面积发生在稀树草原，其余过火面积位于草原、森林和农田。尽管在所有植被类型中，森林往往不太容易受到反复火灾的影响，但其因反复火灾造成的覆盖损失是最大的。森林转变为农田的比例越大，火灾就越频繁。相反，农田和草原的覆盖范围因反复发生的火灾而增加最多。在没有植被转变的地区，更频繁的反复发生的火灾进一步抑制了树冠的绿色度和密度，即使是在适应火灾的稀树草原和草原上也是如此。我们的结果表明，反复发生的火灾和土地利用变化通常是同时发生的，反映了人类活动对南美洲自然植被的巨大压力。因此，迫切需要在该地区的植被保护和人为燃烧的可持续管理方面做出协调努力。