Session Details

Fire results from the complex interplay between climate (precipitation, temperature, soil moisture), vegetation (fuel availability, type) and ignition (lighting, humans). Palaeofire and vegetation-change records provide empirical observations that can be used to 1) characterize fire regimes across space and time, 2) provide baseline information and estimates of the historical range of variability in fire for comparison with contemporary fire regimes; 3) serve as benchmarks for assessing palaeomodel simulations of fire and vegetation change, 4) develop hypotheses about the controls of fire and the interactions between fire, climate, vegetation and people; and 5) test hypotheses through comparisons with other paleoenvironmental datasets and with models. The Global Palaeofire Working Group has assembled a global compilation of sedimentary fire records for the last climatic cycle, focusing on the last 21 ka, as well as the last glacial period and past two millennia. The influence of humans, climate and fuel has been investigated when possible at regional and global scales. However, it is now desirable to ask more detailed questions regarding the weight of each control of fire under different climates, as well as the nature and scope of fire feedbacks to the climate system via changes in vegetation and fuels. In addition, the availability of hundreds of palaeofire records has opened the door to analyses of interactions between fire, climate, vegetation and humans at local to global scales. Accordingly, this session invites papers describing the most recent scientific results on decadal to millennial-scale changes in fire based on paleoecological data, modelling results, or other evidence.