Tree-cover loss due to fire leads to alternative stable states for reasonable assumptions about the growth curve.

<p>A. The dots represent the average probability that a grid cell (500x500 m) catches fire per year as a function of tree cover (for each 1% bin). For parameters of the fitted line, see <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0191027#pone.0191027.s006" target="_blank">S1 Table</a>. Below the figure the corresponding frequency of each tree cover class of 1% is given. Note that the remote sensing estimator of tree cover is bounded to maximum values just above 80%. B. If the <i>per-capita</i> growth rate (d^-1) (blue line) is equal to the <i>per-capita</i> loss (d^-1) due to fire (red line) the system is in equilibrium. The equilibrium at intermediate tree cover is unstable. The probability density in the lower panel is produced by exposing the model to a stochastic environment. The parameters of the model <i>r</i> = 0.0002, <i>α</i> = 0, <i>β</i> = 1, <i>γ</i> = 1, <i>m</i>_<i>fire</i> = 0.0004, and applying additive, normally distributed noise with a standard deviation of 0.003 using the Fokker-Planck equation ([<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0191027#pone.0191027.ref023" target="_blank">23</a>, <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0191027#pone.0191027.ref024" target="_blank">24</a>], also see Supplementary Material) and simulating until equilibrium is reached.