21st Century drought-related fires counteract the decline of Amazon deforestation carbon emissions

Tropical carbon emissions are largely derived from direct forest clearing processes. Yet, emissions from drought-induced forest fires are, usually, not included in national-level carbon emission inventories. Here we examine Brazilian Amazon drought impacts on fire incidence and associated forest fire carbon emissions over the period 2003–2015. We show that despite a 76% decline in deforestation rates over the past 13 years, fire incidence increased by 36% during the 2015 drought compared to the preceding 12 years. The 2015 drought had the largest ever ratio of active fire counts to deforestation, with active fires occurring over an area of 799,293 km2. Gross emissions from forest fires (989 ± 504 Tg CO2 year−1) alone are more than half as great as those from old-growth forest deforestation during drought years. We conclude that carbon emission inventories intended for accounting and developing policies need to take account of substantial forest fire emissions not associated to the deforestation process

LAG-3 (CD223) reduces macrophage and dendritic cell differentiation from monocyte precursors

Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II molecules expressed on monocytes may play a role in the control of differentiation of antigen-presenting cells. A soluble LAG-3 (CD223) molecule (sLAG-3) is a natural, high-affinity ligand for MHC class II. It is known to induce maturation of monocyte-derived dendritic cells in vitro and is used as a vaccine adjuvant to induce CD4 T helper type 1 responses and CD8 T-cell responses in vivo. Here, we demonstrate that sLAG-3 (but not an MHC class II-specific monoclonal antibody) reduces the differentiation of monocytes into macrophages in the presence of granulocyte–macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) as well as their differentiation into dendritic cells in the presence of GM-CSF and interleukin-4, as shown by a decrease in CD14 and CD1a expression, respectively. Dendritic cells derived from monocytes in the presence of sLAG-3 showed impaired antigen-presentation function, as assessed by the reduced capability to induce proliferation of T cells. Our results suggest that activated LAG-3(+) lymphocytes present at sites of inflammation may reduce the differentiation of monocytes into macrophages or fully competent antigen-presenting dendritic cells, thus limiting the magnitude of the ongoing T-cell immune responses