Fire Severity Dynamics and Vegetation Recovery in Land Communal Areas Disturbed by Pteridium aquilinum in the Yucatan Peninsula

Seasonal rainforests in the southern Yucatán Peninsula invaded by bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum) are increasingly exposed to recurrent wildfires that may hinder native tree regeneration. Understanding fire severity dynamics and post-fire vegetation recovery is important for improving fire ecology knowledge and informing restoration strategies. This study evaluated wildfire severity and vegetation recovery in communal lands of the Yucatán Peninsula affected by P. aquilinum. Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) active-fire data were used to reconstruct fire history over a 22-year period, while Sentinel-2 imagery was employed to delineate burned areas following the 2020 and 2024 wildfire events. Fire severity was assessed using the differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) with locally calibrated United States Geological Survey (USGS) thresholds, while supervised classification was applied to evaluate vegetation recovery one year after the 2020 wildfire. The study area exhibited a recurrent fire regime with an average fire-return interval of ~5 years and consistent fire-severity dynamics across both wildfire events. Areas dominated by P. aquilinum consistently experienced high fire severity and limited vegetation recovery, whereas areas with greater native tree coverage generally exhibited lower severity classes and more favorable recovery. These findings highlight the importance of controlling bracken fern dominance and promoting native tree recovery to enhance ecosystem resilience in tropical communal landscapes.