Abstract
The Cerrado, or Brazilian savanna, is a fire-prone ecosystem whose fire adaptations likely originated in the Miocene, with many plants retaining fire-adapted traits of fire up to the present. It is nowadays one of the most frequently and intensely burned ecosystem on Earth, but little is known about its fire history, from the Miocene to more recent times. We compiled a unique dataset of 12 macro-charcoal records from lacustrine or swamp sediments, covering the last 30,000 years in northern, central, and southeastern Cerrado. Our aim was to examine the relationships between charcoal abundance, vegetation structure, and climate variability. We analyzed charcoal abundance, fuel sources and fire return intervals as a function of vegetation cover (Poaceae frequencies), human activities and climate changes. Results indicate that different fire regimes have occurred over the past 30,000 years, with enhanced biomass burning during maxima of solar radiation and high atmospheric CO2 levels. Under natural fire drivers, overall savanna structure persisted across different fire regimes, although with significant local and regional variability. By linking insolation cycles and atmospheric CO2 to fire dynamics, we show that the Cerrado fire regime has shifted from being primarily climate-driven to increasingly human-driven.
Data availability
All macro-charcoal records presented in this study are deposited in the Global Paleofire Database (https://www.paleofire.org/about) and will be available after publication.
References
Armenteras, D. et al. Fire induced loss of the world’s most diverse forests in Latin America. Sci. Adv. 7, eabd3357 (2021).
Bowman, D. M. J. S. et al. Fire in the Earth system. Science 324, 481–448 (2009).
Li, P., Xiao, C., Feng., Z., Li, W. & Zhang, X. Occurrence frequencies and regional variations in visible infrared imaging radiometer suite (VIIRS) global active fires. Glob. Change Biol. 26, 2970–2987 (2020).
Pompeu, J., Assis, T. A. & Ometto, J. P. Landscape changes in the Cerrado: challenges of land clearing, fragmentation and land tenure for biological conservation. Sci. Total Environ. 906, 167581 (2024).
Oliveira, P. S. & Marquis, R. J. The Cerrados of Brazil: Ecology and Natural History of a Neotropical Savanna (Columbia University, 2002).
Pivello, V. R. The use of fire in the Cerrado and Amazonian rainforests of Brazil: past and present. Fire Ecol. 7, 24–39 (2011).
Eloy, L., Schmidt, I. B., Borges, S. L., Ferreira, M. C. & Santos, T. A. Seasonal fire management by traditional cattle ranchers prevents the spread of wildfire in the Brazilian Cerrado. Ambio 48, 890–899 (2018).
Ramos-Neto, M. B. & Pivello, V. R. Lightning fires in a Brazilian savanna National park: rethinking management strategies. Environ. Manage. 26, 675–684 (2000).
Arruda, V. L. S. et al. Assessing four decades of fire behavior dynamics in the Cerrado biome (1985 to 2022). Fire Ecol. 20, 64 (2024).
Pivello, V. R., Shida, C. N. & Meirelles, S. T. Alien grasses in Brazilian savannas: a threat to the biodiversity. Biodivers. Conserv. 8, 1281–1294 (1999).
Damasceno, G. et al. Impact of invasive grasses on Cerrado under natural regeneration. Biol. Invasions. 20, 3621–3629 (2018).
Durigan, G. & Ratter, J. A. The need for a consistent fire policy for Cerrado conservation. J. Appl. Ecol. 53 https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12559 (2016).
Schmidt, I. B. & Eloy, L. Fire regime in the Brazilian savanna: recent changes, policy and management. Flora 268, 151613 (2020).
Requia, W. J. Fires in Brazil: health crises and the failure of government action. Lancet Reg. Health – Americas. 39, 100913 (2024).
de Abreu, R. C. R. & Durigan, G. Changes in the plant community of a Brazilian grassland savannah after 22 years of invasion by Pinus elliottii Engelm. Plant. Ecol. Divers. 4, 269–278 (2011).
Rosan, T. M. et al. Extensive 21st-century woody encroachment in South America’s savanna. Geophys. Res. Lett. 46, 6594–6603 (2019).
Pivello, V. R. et al. Understanding Brazil’s catastrophic fires: causes, consequences and policy needed to prevent future tragedies. Perspect. Ecol. Conserv. 19, 233–255 (2021).
Simon, M. F. et al. Recent assembly of the Cerrado, a Neotropical plant diversity hotspot, by in situ evolution of adaptations to fire. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 106, 20359–20364 (2009).
Bond, W. J., Woodward, E. I. & Midgley, G. E. The global distribution of ecosystems in a world without fire. New. Phytol. 165, 525–538 (2005).
Whitlock, C. & Larsen, C. Charcoal as a fire proxy tracking environmental change using lake sediments in Tracking environmental change using lake sediments (eds Smol, J.P., Birks, H.J.B., Last, W.M., Bradley, R.S., Alverson, K.) 75–97 (Springer Netherlands 2002).
Adolf, C., Doyon, F., Klimmek, F. & Tinner, W. Validating a continental European charcoal calibration dataset. The Holocene 28, 1642–1652 (2018).
Aleman, J. C. et al. Tracking landcover changes with sedimentary charcoal in the Afrotropics. The Holocene 23, 1853–1862 (2013).
Duffin, K. I., Gillson, L. & Willis, K. J. Testing the sensitivity of charcoal as an indicator of fire events in savanna environments: quantitative predictions of fire proximity, area and intensity. The Holocene 18, 279–291 (2008).
Leys, B., Brewer, S. C., McConaghy, S., Mueller, J. & McLauchlan, K. K. Fire history reconstruction in grassland ecosystems: amount of charcoal reflects local area burned. Environ. Res. Lett. 10, 114009 (2015).
Higuera, P. E., Peters, M. E., Brubaker, L. B. & Gavin, D. G. Understanding the origin and analysis of sediment–charcoal records with a simulation model. Q. Sci. Rev. 26, 1790–1809 (2007).
Kelly, R. F., Higuera, P. E., Barrett, C. M. & Hu, F. S. A signal- to-noise index to quantify the potential for peak detection in sediment–charcoal records. Quatern. Res. 75, 11–17 (2011).
Leys, B. A., Marlon, J. R., Umbanhowar, C. & Vannière, B. Global fire history of grassland biomes. Ecol. Evol. 8, 8831–8852 (2018).
Marlon, J. R. et al. Reconstructions of biomass burning from sediment-charcoal records to improve data–model comparisons. Biogeosciences 13, 3225–3244 (2016).
Salgado-Labouriau, M. L. et al. Late Quaternary vegetational and climatic changes in Cerrado and palm swamp from central Brazil. Palaeogeogr., Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 128, 215–226 (1997).
Barberi, M., Salgado-Labouriau, M. L. & Sugio, K. Paleovegetation and paleoclimate of Vereda de Águas Emendadas, central Brazil. J. S. Am. Earth Sci. 13, 241–254 (2000).
Escobar-Torrez, K., Ledru, M. P., Cassino, R. F., Bianchini, P. R. & Yokohama, E. Long- and short-term vegetation change and inferred climate dynamics and anthropogenic activity in the central Cerrado during the Holocene. J. Quat. Sci. 39, 130–144 (2023).
Ledru, M. P., Mourguiart, P., Ceccantini, G., Turcq, B. & Sifeddine, A. Tropical climates in the game of two hemispheres revealed by abrupt climatic change. Geology 30, 275–278 (2002).
Guerra, M. D., Ledru, M. P., Xavier, S. A. S., Santos, R. A. & Araújo, F. S. Late Holocene changes in vegetation and fire within a forest refuge in the Araripe region, Northeastern Brazil. The Holocene 34, 1687–1699 (2024).
Bueno, L. & Isnardis, A. Peopling central Brazilian plateau at the onset of the Holocene: Building territorial histories. Quatern. Int. 473, 144–160 (2018).
Ledru, M. P. & Araújo, F. S. The Cerrado and restinga pathways: two ancient biotic corridors in the neotropics. Front. Biogeogr. https://doi.org/10.21425/F5FBG59398 (2023).
Bond, W. J., Midgley, G. F. & Woodward, F. I. The importance of low atmospheric CO2 and fire in promoting the spread of grasslands and savannas. Glob Chang. Biol. 9, 973–982 (2003).
Daniau, A. L. et al. Predictability of biomass burning in response to climate changes. Global Biogeochem. Cycles. 26 https://doi.org/10.1029/2011GB004249 (2012).
Piperno, D. Phytoliths and microscopic charcoal from leg 155: A vegetational and fire history of the Amazon basin during the last 75 Ky. Proc. Ocean. Drill. Progr. 155, 411–418 (1997).
Cassino, R. F., Ledru, M. P., Santos, R. A. & Favier, C. Vegetation and fire variability in the central Cerrados (Brazil) during the Pleistocene–Holocene transition was influenced by oscillations in the SASM boundary belt. Q. Sci. Rev. 232, 106209. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106209 (2020).
Lombardo, U. et al. Early Holocene crop cultivation and landscape modification in Amazonia. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2162-7 (2020).
Oliveira, U. et al. Modeling fuel loads dynamics and fire spread probability in the Brazilian Cerrado. For. Ecol. Manag. 482, 118889 (2021).
Pereira, A. C., Oliveira, S. L. J., Pereira, J. M. C. & Turkman, A. Modelling fire frequency in a Cerrado savanna protected area. PLoS ONE. 9, e102380. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0102380 (2014).
Gruhn, R. Evidence grows for early peopling of the Americas. Nature 584 (2020).
Fidelis, A. F. & Zirondi, H. L. And after fire, the Cerrado flowers: A review of post-fire flowering in a tropical savanna. Flora 280, 151849. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.flora.2021.151849 (2021).
Pilon, N. A. L. et al. The diversity of post-fire regeneration strategies in the Cerrado ground layer. J. Ecol. 109, 154–166 (2021).
Oliveras, I. et al. Effects of fire regimes on herbaceous biomass and nutrient dynamics in the Brazilian savanna. Int. J. Wildland Fire. 22, 368–380 (2013).
Horák-Terra, I. et al. Late Quaternary vegetation and climate dynamics in central‐eastern Brazil: insights from a ~ 35k Cal a BP peat record in the Cerrado biome. J. Quat. Sci. 35, 664–676 (2020).
Laskar, J. et al. A long-term numerical solution for the insolation quantities of the Earth. Astron. Astrophys. 428, 261–285 (2004).
Clark, J. S. Particle motion and the theory of charcoal analysis: source area, transport, deposition, and sampling. Quatern. Res. 30, 67–80 (1988).
Gavin, D. G., Hu, F. S., Lertzman, K. & Corbett, P. Weak Climatic control of stand-scale fire history during the late Holocene. Ecology 87, 1722–1732 (2006).
Peters, M. E. & Higuera, P. E. Quantifying the source area of macroscopic charcoal with a particle dispersal model. Quatern. Res. 67, 304–310 (2007).
Higuera, P. E., Brubaker, L. B., Anderson, P. M., Hu, F. S. & Brown, T. A. Vegetation mediated the impacts of post-glacial climate change on fire regimes in the south-central Brooks Range, Alaska. Ecol. Monogr. 79, 201–219 (2009).
Finsinger, W. & Bonici, I. Tapas an R package to perform trend and peaks analysis. Zenodo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6344463 (2022).
Deplazes, G. et al. Links between tropical rainfall and North Atlantic climate during the last glacial period. Nat. Geosci. 6, 213–217 (2013).
EPICA Community Members. Eight glacial cycles from an Antarctic ice core. Nature 429, 623–628 (2004).
Capron, E. et al. Synchronising EDML and NorthGRIP ice cores using d18O of atmospheric oxygen (d18Oatm) and CH4 measurements over MIS5 (80–123 kyr). Q. Sci. Rev. 29, 222–234 (2010).
Acknowledgements
We thank Sandrine Canal, Sylvie Rouland and Vincent Montade (ISEM), Carlo Musco de Caires, Auriane Mousnier and Nolwenn Bourhis students of the Master “Chrono-environnement et paléoécologie” (CEPAGE) at the University of Montpellier for their assistance with the analyses.
Funding
This work is part of the “Cerrados & Fogos” program at IRD-ISEM, of the project ANR SESAME “Human paleoecology, social and cultural evolution among first settlements in Southern America” (ANR-320-C03-0005). K.E.T. benefited from a PhD position funded by the IRD ARTS program and the French Embassy in Bolivia. R.F.C. benefited from a South-North IRD grant during her stay at ISEM. The work benefited from the ‘Investissement d’Avenir’ grant managed by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (CEBA, ref. ANR‐10‐LABX‐25‐01), and from the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)/Brazil (Universal 28/2018–408393/2018-1, and Research Productivity Scholarship granted to I. Horák-Terra [process no. 302120/2022-0]), Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG)/Brazil (Universal 001/2022 - APQ-00458-22).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
**MPL** Conceptualization; Data curation; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Resources; Visualization; Writing – original draft; Writing –review and editing**RFC** Conceptualization; Data curation; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Visualization; Writing – original draft; Writing –reviewand editing**KET** Conceptualization; Investigation; Methodology; Visualization; Writing – original draft; Writing –review and editing**IHT** Investigation; Data curation; Funding acquisition; Writing – original draft; Writing –review & editing**VP** Investigation; Writing – original draft; Writing –review and editing.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
About this article
Cite this article
Ledru, MP., Franco Cassino, R., Escobar-Torrez, K. et al. 30,000 years of fire history in the Cerrado. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-38119-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-38119-0
