Access to water reserves in deep soil during drought periods determines whether ornot the tropical moist forests of Amazonia will be buffered from the deleterious effectsof water deficits. Changing climatic conditions are predicted to increase periods of droughtin...

Forest understory fires are an increasingly important cause of forest impoverishment in Amazonia, but little is known of the landscape characteristics and climatic phenomena that determine their occurrence. We developed empirical functions relating the occurrence...