Response to concerns about the African fire trends controlled by precipitation over recent decades.

Croplands expanded in Africa over recent decades, even though the increasing trends are spatially heterogeneous. The colored lines are the fitted linear change rate (p < .1*, p < .05**, p < .01***) gl The results showed that a large proportion of croplands experienced an increasing trend (54%, 41% with a significant increase, I p i < .1), even though changes in croplands are spatially heterogeneous in Africa. Croplands include cropland (IGBP 12) and cropland and natural vegetation mosaics (IGBP 14) land cover types. [Extracted from the article]