Fig. 2.

A decrease in the number of fires was the primary driver of the global decline in burned area (MCD64A1). Normalized variation (2003 = 1) and linear trends in (a) burned area, (b) number of fires, and (c) mean fire size. Shading denotes 95% prediction intervals. Adjusting for precipitation-driven trends in burned area (28) isolated residual trends associated with other factors, including human activity. Panel (d) summarizes trends in global burned area, calculated as the product of the number and size of fires, after adjusting for the influence of precipitation. Regional trends in fire number and fire size are provided in Table 1, S1 and Fig. S7.