Molecular composition of fossil charcoal and relationship with incomplete combustion of wood

Marynowski, Leszek; Kubik, Rafał; Uhl, Dieter; Simoneit, Bernd R.T.

doi:10.1016/j.orggeochem.2014.09.003

Cited by 41 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…The abundance and distribution of medium-weight PAHs during the Initial Burning Period is consistent with sustained fires characterized by low oxygen availability and a high flaming to smoldering combustion ratio 34 , 35 . Based on the scarcity of high molecular weight PAHs, on the thermal stability of detected compounds 36 and on burning experiments 37 , 38 , we infer a maximum combustion temperature averaging 400–500 °C. This temperature range was found to maximize the production of 3–4 ring PAHs from biomass combustion 32 , 39 .…”

Section: Fire Recordmentioning

confidence: 94%

Lake sediment fecal and biomass burning biomarkers provide direct evidence for prehistoric human-lit fires in New Zealand

Argiriadis

Battistel

McWethy

et al. 2018

Sci Rep

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Deforestation associated with the initial settlement of New Zealand is a dramatic example of how humans can alter landscapes through fire. However, evidence linking early human presence and land-cover change is inferential in most continental sites. We employed a multi-proxy approach to reconstruct anthropogenic land use in New Zealand’s South Island over the last millennium using fecal and plant sterols as indicators of human activity and monosaccharide anhydrides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, charcoal and pollen as tracers of fire and vegetation change in lake-sediment cores. Our data provide a direct record of local human presence in Lake Kirkpatrick and Lake Diamond watersheds at the time of deforestation and a new and stronger case of human agency linked with forest clearance. The first detection of human presence matches charcoal and biomarker evidence for initial burning at c. AD 1350. Sterols decreased shortly after to values suggesting the sporadic presence of people and then rose to unprecedented levels after the European settlement. Our results confirm that initial human arrival in New Zealand was associated with brief and intense burning activities. Testing our approach in a context of well-established fire history provides a new tool for understanding cause-effect relationships in more complex continental reconstructions.

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Section: Fire Recordmentioning

confidence: 94%

Lake sediment fecal and biomass burning biomarkers provide direct evidence for prehistoric human-lit fires in New Zealand

Argiriadis

Battistel

McWethy

et al. 2018

Sci Rep

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“…Partially charred particles ( Fig. 2D) in the in situ pillars indicate a brief heating duration or high levels of fuel moisture (Hudspith et al, 2012;Marynowski et al, 2014) as might be expected for wildfires in peat-forming settings.…”

Section: Accepted Manuscriptmentioning

confidence: 79%

Early Paleogene wildfires in peat-forming environments at Schöningen, Germany

Robson

Collinson

Riegel³

et al. 2015

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

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Wildfire activity in early Paleogene greenhouse conditions can be used as an analogue to gauge the effect of future warming trends on wildfire in the current climate system. Inertinite (fossil charcoal in coal) from 11 autochthonous early Paleogene lignite seams from the Schöningen mine (Germany) was quantified using macerations, in situ pillars and industry standard crushed samples. A new three transect method was developed to quantify in situ charcoal. The combination of in situ pillars and crushed samples accounts for temporal and spatial variation in charcoal through a stratigraphically oriented pillar, whilst maintaining comparability with industry standards and previous work. Charcoal occurs as a range of randomly distributed particle sizes, indicating that fires were burning locally in the Schöningen peat-forming environment and in the surrounding areas, but according to petrological data, not in an episodic or periodic pattern. Although charcoal abundance is A C C E P T E D M A N U S C R I P T ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPTRobson et al. Paleogene record of Wildfires 2 low (relative to previous high fire worlds such as the Cretaceous), three quantitative and semiquantitative methods show increased wildfire activity (relative to the modern world) in the warmest parts of the early Paleogene. As atmospheric oxygen levels stabilised to modern values and precipitation and humidity became the main control on wildfire, increased rainfall followed by drier intervals would have created an environment rich in dry fuel in which wildfires could easily propagate if humidity was low enough. In the later part of the Early Eocene (Ypresian) charcoal abundance fell to levels similar to those found in modern peats. This indicates that the transition to the modern low fire world occurred within the Early Eocene, earlier than previous records suggest.

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“…When the expansion of charcoal became the most dominant process, there was an increase in charcoal area but a decrease in charcoal numbers. It has been shown that charcoal becomes waterlogged (Nichols et al, 2000), and that compounds similar to wood still exist in the charcoal (Marynowski et al, 2014), which indicates that the mechanisms responsible for shrinkage/swelling of wood can still be at play in charcoal. Furthermore, in pilot studies conducted by the authors, individual charcoal pieces submerged in H 2 O 2 33% expanded, which is in agreement with the overall increase seen in the charcoal area.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward a standardized procedure for charcoal analysis

2020

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Sedimentary charcoal records are used for understanding fire as an earth system process; however, no standardized laboratory methodology exists. Varying sample volumes and chemical treatments (i.e., type of chemical for length of time) are used for the deflocculation and extraction of charcoal from sediment samples. Here, we present the first systematic assessment of the effect of commonly used chemicals on charcoal area and number of fragments. In modern charcoal the area of fragments was significantly different depending on the chemical treatment. We subsequently applied H2O2 (33%), NaClO (12.5%), and HNO3 (50%) to a late-glacial–early Holocene paleorecord and tested different sample volumes. The effects of the treatments were consistent between modern and fossil experiments, which demonstrates the validity of applying results from the modern experiment to the fossil records. Based on our experiments we suggest (1) H2O2 33%, especially for highly organic sediments; (2) avoidance of high concentrations of NaClO for prolonged periods of time, and of HNO3; and (3) samples of 1 cm3 provided typically consistent profiles. Our results indicate that charcoal properties can be influenced by treatment type and sample volume, thus emphasizing the need for a common protocol to enable reliable multi-study comparisons or composite fire histories.

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Molecular composition of fossil charcoal and relationship with incomplete combustion of wood

Cited by 41 publications

References 64 publications

Lake sediment fecal and biomass burning biomarkers provide direct evidence for prehistoric human-lit fires in New Zealand

Lake sediment fecal and biomass burning biomarkers provide direct evidence for prehistoric human-lit fires in New Zealand

Early Paleogene wildfires in peat-forming environments at Schöningen, Germany

Toward a standardized procedure for charcoal analysis

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