Fire in the ecosystems of northern South America: advances in the ecology of tropical fires in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru

Tropical ecosystems harbor a large part of the world's biodiversity, yet they are being transformed at unprecedented rates by changes in land use. In Latin America, land cover conversion, and pastures and agricultural areas maintenance are strongly related with the use of fire. The source of fire and its causes are numerous and in the region there is an evident direct and indirect association with human activities. South America has been increasingly affected by fire occurrence; with fire events every year since 2001. The impacts of fires on natural ecosystems are multiple and vary in magnitude but little progress has been made to assess their extent. This article presents a review of current knowledge on tropical fire ecology in three Andean countries of northern South America, it provides an insight on the spatial and temporal patterns of fire, the effects over the ecosystems and post-fire dynamics. Large knowledge gaps about the fire ecology on several ecosystems in this region are evident.