I had a hunch about the presence of non-native species and how they could possibly be contributing to the intensity of wildfires across Europe.
With a focus on Portugal, after much reading I found the Eucalyptus Globulus to be rampant across the country. From the 12th century onwards, Portugal's native forests were cut down during a period of intense exploitation to fund their maritime endeavours. This saw the felling of over 5 million trees, mostly made up of oaks and chestnuts (Tng, 2025). After more recent efforts to regenerate the land, today one third of Portugal's landmass is forestry, however Eucalyptus is the main coverage.
In the end, I found Eucalyptus data from the Biodiversity Digital Twin on Invasive Alien Species and combined with Burnt Area Polygons 2024 from The Institute for Nature and Forest Conservation (PT), I produced this map displaying the mean value of Eucalyptus in those burned areas adding further to my hunch.
I will do more on this - incorporate more species and further analyses - but this is a starting point.
https://app.biodt.lifewatch.eu/app/biodt-shiny/?_inputs_&app-navbar=%22ias%22
https://sigservices.icnf.pt/server/rest/services/BDG/areas_ardidas/MapServer
