Table 3 Comparison between ratios of fire count, burned area, Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) and total fire-related carbon dioxide emissions to deforestation rate for the Brazilian Legal Amazon across two periods, where Period I is from 2001–2008 and Period II is from 2009–2016, except for burned area which is from 2009–2015. Errors are quoted as 95% confidence intervals based on the standard error for the average ratio in each period. Values in bold are for comparisons that are statistically significant at the 95% confidence level. Ratios are shown for the full period and for the precipitation-adjusted (PA) time series.

Fire count: Deforestation (# \(k{m}^{-2}\))

Full

2.27 \(\pm \) 0.79

4.06 \(\pm \) 1.51

PA

2.45 \(\pm \) 0.59

4.68 \(\pm \) 1.02

Burned area: Deforestation (% \(k{m}^{-2}\))

Full

0.85 \(\times \) 10\({}^{-4}\) \(\pm \) 0.34 \(\times \)10\({}^{-4}\)

2.54 \(\times \) 10\({}^{-4}\)\(\pm \) 1.25 \(\times \) 10\({}^{-4}\)

PA

0.86 \(\times \) 10\({}^{-4}\) \(\pm \) 0.34 \(\times \)10\({}^{-4}\)

2.76 \(\times \) 10\({}^{-4}\) \(\pm \) 0.90 \(\times \) 10\({}^{-4}\)

AOD: Deforestation

Full (\(k{m}^{-2}\))

1.16 \(\times \) 10\({}^{-5}\) \(\pm \) 0.29 \(\times \) 10\({}^{-5}\)

2.69 \(\times \) 10\({}^{-5}\)\(\pm \) 0.55 \(\times \) 10\({}^{-5}\)

PA

1.18 \(\times \) 10\({}^{-5}\) \(\pm \)0.25 \(\times \) 10\({}^{-5}\)

2.77 \(\times \) 10\({}^{-5}\) \(\pm \) 0.47\(\times \) 10\({}^{-5}\)

CO\({}_{2}\): Deforestation (\(Tg\ k{m}^{-2}\))

Full

0.04 \(\pm \) 0.02

0.09 \(\pm \) 0.04

PA

0.04 \(\pm \) 0.01

0.09 \(\pm \) 0.02